The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation

by Erasmus Darwin

NOTE XXXVIII … VEGETABLE IMPREGNATION.

Seeds in broom discovered twenty days before the flower opens; progress of the seed after impregnation; seeds exist before fecundation; analogy between seeds and eggs; progress of the egg within the hen; spawn of frogs and of fish; male Salamander; marine plants project a liquor not a powder; seminal fluid diluted with water, if a stimulus only? Male and female influence necessary in animals, insects, and vegetables, both in production of seeds and buds; does the embryon seed produce the surrounding fruit, like insects in gall-nuts?