| XXX | (646) | XXX |
6^6 B O T upon "he furface till they receive their impregnation, and then fink down. “ 9. Omnium florum genuina conjideratio.—Here .a number of particulars are recited. We (hall confine ourfelves to thofe that are moil ftriking and applicable to the fubje#. “ When the flowers of the male hemp are pulled off before thofe of the female are fully expanded, the females do not produce fertile feeds. But as a male flower is fometimes found upon a female plant, this may be the reafon why fertile feeds are fometimes produced even after this precaution has been obferved. “ The tulip affords another experiment to the fame purpofe.—Cut off all the antherae of a red tulip before the pollen is emitted; then take the ripe antherse of a white tulip, and throw the pollen of the white one upon the (Hgma of the red; the feeds of the red tulip being thus impregnated by one of a different complexion, will next fe'afon produce fome red, feme white, but moft variegated flowers.” In the year 1744, Linnaeus publiflied a defeription of a new genus, which he Called peloria, on the fjppofition of its being a hybrid or mule plant, i. e. a plant produced by an unnatural commixture of two different genera. The root, leaves, cauiis, <bc. of this plant are exceedingly fimilar to thofe of the antirrhinum linaria; but the flower and other parts of fru&ification are totally different. On account of its fimilarity to the linaria in every part but the flower, Linnaeus imagined it to have been produced by a fortuitous commixture of the linaria with fome other plant, although he has never yet been able to condefcend on the father. This dodtrine of the production of mule plants has fince been greatly prized and carefully ptopagated by Linnaeus and the other fupporters of the fexual hypothefis. In the third volume of the Amcenitcites Academic#, there is a complete differtation, intitled. Plant# Hybrid#, wherein the dodrine of vegetable muleJ is much improved and extended. This diflertation contains a lift of 47 mules, with their fuppofed fathers and mothers. For example. The Veronica Spuria is faid to be a wa/eplant begot by the verbena officinalis upon the veronica maritima. The delphinium hybridum, a mule begot by the aconitum napellus uponi the delphinium datum. The ardotis calendula, a mule begot by the calendula pluvialis upon the ardotis triftis. The afclepias nigra, a mule begot by the cynanchum acutum upon the afclepias vincetoxicum, fcc. From the, examples given in this differtation, Linnaens draws this Angular conclufion, that only two fpecies of each genus exifted ab origine-, and that all the variety of fpecies which now appear have been produced by unnatural embraces betwixt fpecies of different genera. Under this head, Linnaeus likewife quotes from Ray the ftory of Richard Baal gardener at Brentford. This Baal fold a large quantity of the feeds of the braflica florida to feveral gardeners in the fuburbs of London. Thefe gardeners, after fow’ing their feeds in the ufual manner, were furprifed to find them, turn out to be plants of a different
ANY. fpecies from that which Baal made them believe they had purchafed; for, inftead of the brafica florida, the plants turned out to be the braflica longifolia. The gardeners, upon making the difeovery, commenced a profecution of fraud againft Baal in Weftminfter-hall. The court found Baal guilty of fraud, and decerned him not only to reftore the price of the feeds, but likewife'to pay the gardeners for their loft time, and the ufe of their ground. “ Had thefe judges (fays Linnaeus) been acquainted with the fexuail hypothefis, they would not have found Baal guilty of any crime, but would have aferibed the accident to the fortuitous impregnation of the braflica fiorida by the pollen of the braffica longifolia.” Linnasus next proceeds to celebrate the utility of infers, becaufe they convey the pollen of the male to the ftigma of the female. “ In this way,” fays he, “ it is reafonable to think that many dioicous plants are impregnated. Nay, even the hermaphrodites themfelves are greatly obliged to the different tribes of infeds, which, by fluttering and treading in the corolla, are conftantly fcattering the pollen about the ftigma. “ Upon the whole,” then, concludes Linnsms, “the coitus of vegetables is evident to a demonftration This coitus is nothing more than the conveyance of the pollen to the ftigma, to which it adheres till it borfts and difcharges a fubtile elaftic fluid. This fluid or aura is abforbed by the veffels of the ftylus, and carried diredlly to the ovarium or germen, where the myfterious work of impregnation is fully compleated.” These are the arguments employed by Linnaeus and other advocates for the fexual commerce of vegetables.— Let us next attend to thofe employed by the oppofers of this hypothefis. It is admitted by Pontedera, Dr Alfton, fyc. that fome of the acients applied the terms male and female to feveral plants. But then they deny that thefe terms conveyed the fame ideas to the ancients that they do to the moderns. Male and female, when applied to plants, were to the ancients mere terms of diftindtion, ferving only as trivial names to diftinguiffi one fpecies or variety from another. The ancients were ignorant of the very charafters which conftitute the difference between what is cal'.ed a male and female plant among the moderns. Theophraftus, Diofcorides, Pliny, and, in a word, the whole ancient bontanical writers, confound the very notion of the modern fexes f they call the real female, or feed-bearing plant, the male; and the male, or barren plant, the female. Nay, they have even applied the terms male and female to many plants which bear nothing but hermaphrodite flowers. Such is the nature of this controverfy, that it cannot be determined with any degree of certainty, but by experiments made upon dioicous plants. If a female plant can produce fertile feeds without having any communication with the pollen of the male, the ufe of this pollen, with refpedt to the impregnation of feeds, muft of neceffity be entirely fuperfeded. Now, both Camerarius and Dr Alfton tried thefe experiments with the fame fuccefs. Thofe two eminent botanifts took female plants of the mercury, fpinage,hemp,. and
