EIGHTH EXPEHIMENT. 



The experiments on the Maize related by Logan are perfectly conclusive.* 



manner. 



_ j,^ and intimately resembles that of the animal creation. There is a male as well as a female Date-tree, which are distinguished from 



each other bj the colour and shape of the blossoms. The male-tree yields no fruit; but the gardener must be careful, every spring, to cull 

 as many blossoms from the male as will serve his purpose. One of these at least he must inwrap and bind up in the blossom of the female- 

 tree ; without which she will prove as barren as the male." Vide Irwin's Series of Adventures in the Course of a Voyage up the Red Sea. 



8VO. Edit. 1787- 



SoNNiNi, the latest traveller in Egypt, gives us the following account of the uses of the Date-tree. 

 " Among the trees of Egypt there is none more widely dispersed than the Date-tree : it is every where to be found, in the Thebais and in 

 the Delta ; in the sands as well as in the cultivated districts. Although it requires little culture, it yields a considerable profit, on account of 

 the immense consumption of its fruit. The date varies in quality ; that which is produced in the environs of Rosetta is delicious, and boats 

 are laden with it for the market of Cairo. 



*' To climb trees which have no branches but at their top, and the straight and slender stem of which cannot support a ladder, the Egyp- 

 tians employ a sort of girth fastened to a rope, that they pass round the tree. On this girth they seat themselves, and rest their weight ; 

 then, with the assistance of their feet, and holding the cord in both hands, they contrive to force the noose suddenly upwards, so as to catch 

 the rugged protuberances with which the stem is symmetrically studded, and formed at the origin of the branch-like leaves, that are annually 

 cut. By m.eans of these successive springs, the people of this country reach the top of the Date-tree, where, sitting, they work at their ease, 

 either impregnating the females, or gathering the clusters of fruit : they afterwards descend in the same manner. 



" The dates are not the only produce of this species of Palm-tree ; from hard beating its bark, its branch-like leaves, as well as the rind of 

 its clusters of fruit, threads are obtained, from which are manufactured ropes and sails for boats. The leaves serve likew^ise for making 

 baskets and other articles. The very long rib of the branches, or leaves, is called in Arabic dsjerid. From its combined lightness and solidity, 

 it is employed by the Mamaluks, in their military exercises, as javelins, which they throw at each other from their horses when at full speed." 

 Vide Sonnini's Travels into Egypt, 4to. Ed. 1800. p. 400. 



* His book is entitled, " Experiments and Reflections on the Generation of Plants, by James Logan, President of the Council, and 

 Chief Justice of the Province of Pensilvania," and was pubhshed in 1739. From this Essay I shall extract what the ingenious author has 

 related respecting the Maize, or Indian Corn. 



" As several doubts had formerly occurred to me in respect to the generation both of plants and animals, when I first heard of the Farina 

 foecundans, or impregnating male dust, I conceived great hopes that these would be easily solved, and the whole of this intricate affair 

 receive considerable light from the discovery. And as I had long ago observed, with surprise, the singular way of growth of our Indian 

 Wheat or Maize, I judged it, of all the plants I had seen, or perhaps of any that Nature produces, the most proper one for experiments of 



this kind. 



Indian Wheat grows to the height of six, eight, and sometimes ten feet. At the top of the stalk it bears a thready tuft or tassel (called 

 by Malpighi, MuscariuTn) furnished with apices, which yield the farina. From the joints of the stalk below, the ears grow out, which 

 are six, eight, ten, and sometimes even twelve inches long. These consist of a pretty solid substance, about an inch thick, set quite round 

 with grains regularly disposed in rows, in a very beautiful manner. Generally there are eight such rows, often ten, sometimes twelve ; and 

 I once saw sixteen : there are commonly forty grains in each row, more or less ; which, in their first rudiments, and whilst the stalk they 

 grow upon is soft and tender, may justly be called the ova or eggs : to each ovum there adheres a white, fine, smooth filament, which, ex- 

 cepting that it is hollow, resembles a thread of silk. These filaments are disposed one by one in order, betwixt the rows from that end where 

 the ear rises from the stalk to the other, where they creep from under the case that incloses the ear, and make their appearance, in the open 

 air, in a bundle or skein : their colour in this part is mostly whitish, though sometimes a little yellow, red, or purple, according to the nature 

 of the plant they grow from : these filaments, as I formerly suspected, are the real styles of the eggs. 



Intending therefore to make some experiments on this plant, towards the end of April I planted four or five grains on hillocks, as is usual 

 in sowing maize, in each corner of a little garden I had in town, which was about forty feet wide, and eighty long. About the beginning 

 of Auo-ust, when the plants were full grown, and the tufts on the top, and the ears on the stem, had acquired their full extent, I cut ofF 

 these tufts from every plant on one hillock. On another, without meddling with the tufts, I gently opened the leaves that covered the ears, 

 and cut away from some all the styles, and then closed the leaves again ; from others a quarter part, from others one half, and from others 

 three quarters, and left the rest untouched. I covered another ear, before the skein of styles appeared out of the case, with a piece of very 

 fine and soft muslin, but so loosely, that its growth could not be injured ; and whilst the furzy texture of the muslin suffered it to receive 

 all the benefit of the sun, air, and showers, the farina was effectually secluded. I left the plants on the fourth hillock, as I did these, except 

 in the circumstances above-mentioned, unmolested, till they were fully ripe. 



After the beginning of October, when it was time to inquire into the success of my experiments, I made the following observations. In 

 the first hillock, where I had cut off all the tufts, the ears, whilst they remained covered with their husks, looked indeed very well, but were 

 small, and felt light when handled; and not one perfect grain to be found in them, except in one large ear, which grew out somewhat farther 

 from the stalk than usual, and on that side too which faced another hillock in a quarter from whence our strongest winds most commonly 

 blow : in this ear alone I found about twenty grains which were full grown and ripe. I attributed this to some farina brought by the wind 

 from a distant plant. In those ears from which I had plucked off some of the styles, I found just so many ripe grains as I had left styles 

 untouched. In those covered with muslin, not one ripe grain was to be seen : the empty or barren eggs were nothing but mere dry 



husks. 



From these experiments, which I made with the utmost care and circumspection, as well as from those made by a great many other 

 persons, it is very plain that this/rtrm«, emitted from the summits of the stamina, is the true male seed, and absolutely necessary to render the 

 grain fertile. A truth which, however certain, yet was unknown till the present age : the discoverer of this grand secret of Nature, therefore, 

 ought ever to be remembered with due applause. Sir Thomas Millington, sometime Savilian Professor, seems first to have taken notice 



of 



