[ * 3 * ] 
which were thus cut, fucceeded, whilft feveral of 
the neighbouring flowers mif-carried. 
Thus did a fnail teach me how to render a tree 
fruitful ; nor is it the firft time that animals have 
been the inftrudtors of mankind. I confefs, how- 
ever, that this procefs is not very practicable in 
a large orchard : but it might be adopted in an 
efpalier ; in which one would chufe to procure a 
great deal of fruit from trees of the beft fort. It 
may indeed be queftioned, whether the fuppref- 
fion of the ftamens would not render the fruit 
barren ; and in faff I found, that, though the 
flowers of the dwarf apple-tree, whofe petals and 
ftamens were eat up by the fnail, gave me apples 
equally large and beautiful, and that, when I came 
to open them, I found the capfules formed as ufual 
at the center of them ; yet they were entirely 
empty, without the leaft appearance of a pip, 
Abfolute fru&ification confequently did' not take 
place ; fince botanifts, with reafon, call nothing 
fruit but the feed, which contains the germen, 
which is to perpetuate the fpecies. All the other 
parts, being only intended to co-operate in the 
formation and prefervation of the feeds, perifh of 
courfe, when once the feeds are come to maturity 
and perfection, and the work of nature fulfilled. 
Another remarkable thing in thefe apples is, 
that in the upper part there was found a much 
deeper cavity than ufual. It was eight or nine 
lines deep. The orifice of this cavity was bor- 
dered by five tubercles, indented and fomewhat 
elevated ; but there was no veftige of the calyx, 
which, it is well known, remains always to the 
S z upper 
