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Besides this general definition, as to what is meant by Trees , Fru- chap.texes, &c. they are specially distinguished by other characters, viz. Leaves,
Buds, Blofsoms, &c. but more especially by what they produce of moreimportance -by their fruit ye shall know them. .
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The Glandiferse, Oaks, and Ilexes, yield acorns and other useful ex-crescences.—The Mast-bearers are the Beech, and such as include theirseeds and fruit in rougher husks, as the Chesnut-tree, &c.—The Walnut,
Hasel, Avelans, &c. are the Nucifera.—To the Conifera, Resiniferse,and Squamiferae, belong the whole tribe of Cedars, Firs, Pines, &c.—Apples, Pears, Quinces , and several other Edulae fruits, Peaches, Apri-cots, Plums, &c. are reduced to the Pomiferae.—The Bacciferae are suchas produce Kernels, Sorbs , Cherries, viz. Holley, Bay, Laurel, Yew,Juniper, Elder, and all the Berry-bearers.—The Genistas in general, andsuch as bear their seeds in cods, come under the tribe of Siliquosae.—TheLanuginosa; are such as bed their seeds in a cottony down.
ception is performed by the junction of the male and female; but it has remained a doubtwith some, whether the union of the sexes be as efsential in the propagation of vegetables.The great Linnseui has formed his noble system of Botany upon the certainty that allplants have male and female organs, either growing upon the same tree, or upon differenttrees of the same species: his method is distinguished by the name of the SexualSystem, and is now universally acknowledged. On its first appearance, it was receivedwith all that caution that becomes an enlightened age; and Nature was traced experi-mentally through all her variations before it was universally afsented to. Tournefort refused to give it a place in his system; and Pontedera, though he had carefully examinedit, treated it as chimerical. The learned Dr. Alston, Profefsor of Botany in the Universityof Edinburgh, violently opposed it; but the proofs which Dr. Linnaeus has given amongstthe aphorisms of his Fundamenta Botanica, and farther illustrated and explained in hisPhilosophia Botanica, are so clear, that the mind does not hesitate a moment in pro-nouncing animal and vegetable conception to be the same: there is, however, thisdifference ; in animals fruition is voluntary, but in vegetables necefsary and mechanical.Another and more striking proof of the analogy between plants and animals may be drawnfrom observations made in their infant states, at which early period they seem nourishedand protected in a similar manner. For this the curious reader is requested to consultthe note upon page 27, in which he will find sufficient proofs to convince him, that everyblade of grafs which he contemptuously treads upon, has been nurtured in its infancy bythe hand of Providence, with as much care, and in the same manner, as Man himself withall his pre-eminence of station.
Volume 1 . Q.