OF FOREST-TREES.

153

till now, pafsed for a little miracle, as it still may do for a thing extra- chap. vii.

ordinary, and rare enough ; for not only its pafsage, and how it shouldcome there, unlefs haply some of the samera, or seed, of the old tree,when pregnant, should have luckily fallen down within the hollow pipe,or, as might be conjectured, from some sucker springing of a juicy root,but the strange incorporating of the superior part of the bole with the

gardener, or green-house, or any art, can prevent its perishing on the first approach of*winter.

The stomach of plants is the earth, from which they receive their nourishment; and thefinest and most subtle part of the soil is their chyle. The root, which carries the chylefrom the stomach to the body ofthe plant, is analagous to the lacteals or chyliferous vefselsof animals. The trunk, which supports and give strength to the whole plant, is analogousto the bones. The leaves by which plants tranfpire, are instead of lungs. The leavesmay be also compared to the muscles of.animals; for by their agitation with the wind theplant is put in motion. For these reasons, herbs furnished with leaves cannot thrive,except they have air; but succulent plants, which have no leaves; e. g. some of theEujikalfias , Torch-thistles, Melon-thistle, Prickly-pear, and the Stajidia, though shut up in>green-houses, and quite deprived ofthe external air, do thrive very well. If you shut upa tree or a shrub, which is full of leaves, in a close room in the summer time, it will die;but if in the winter, when it has lost all its leaves, it will remain safe. Heat is to plantsanalogous to the heart in animals. Plants have no heart, nor indeed have they anyoccasion for such an organ, ior- they live in the same manuer as Polypes do in the animal-kingdom; their juices, mixed with air are propelled through the vefsels, but not circu-lated back again by returning vefsels. The blood vefsels of animals are divided intovarious branches, so also are the vefsels of plants.

From what has been said it follows, that a flower which is furnished with anther*, blitwants the stigmata, is a male flower, that a flower which has stigmata, but no anther*,-is a female ; and one that has both, is an hermaphrodite flower. Nor need we wonder,that in the vegetable kingdom many plants are hermaphrodite, though in the animal'kingdom there are very few of this kind; for there one- lex can easily go to the other•whereas plants are fixed to one spot, and cannot go from it. Justly therefore has the All-wise Creator furnished snails and other slow-paced animals with the genital organs of both ■sexes, lest the species should be extinct or lost; during their copulation then, the one actson the other, and each acts the part of male, and female, while both impregnate and areimpregnated by each other.

We call a plant which has only male flowers, a male plant; that which has only femaleflowers, a female plant; and that which has only hermaphrodite flowers, an hermaphroditeplant. A fourth sort, having on one and the fame stem both male and female flowersdistinct, is called an androgynous plant. There is also-a fifth sort, namely, when on oneand the same plant there are not only hermaphrodite flowers, but also male or female,flowers; and this is called a polygamous plant. When male flowers are added to the-hermaphrodite, they serve to impregnate thofe which have not been impregnated-by thair -