37 8 History of the Sexual Theory. [BOOK in. 



(c. 15, 3) he says, that terebinths are some male and some 

 female, and that the former are barren and are therefore 

 called male. That Theophrastus in all these matters trusted 

 to the relations of others is shown by a passage in the same 

 book (c. 1 8, i), where he says, 'What men say, that the fruit 

 of the female date-palm does not perfect itself unless the 

 blossom of the male with its dust is shaken over it, is indeed 

 wonderful, but resembles the caprification of the fig, and it 

 might almost be concluded that the female plant is not by 

 itself sufficient for the perfecting of the foetus ; but this cannot 

 be the case in one genus or two, but either in all or in many.' 

 We observe the grand style in which the Greek philosopher 

 dismisses this important question, and how far he is from 

 condescending to make an observation for himself. 



It appears that in Pliny's time the hypothesis of a sexual 

 difference in plants had grown up and become confirmed in 

 the minds if not of writers, yet of those who occupied them- 

 selves with nature ; Pliny in his ' Historia Mundi,' describing 

 the relation between the male and female date-palm, calls the 

 pollen-dust the material of fertilisation, and says that naturalists 

 tell us that all trees and even herbs have the two sexes *. 



If this theme supplied little material for reflection to philo- 

 sophers, it did not fail to excite the fancy of the poets. De 

 Candolle cites the verses of Ovid and Claudian on the 

 subject, and passing over the intervening centuries for a 

 very sufficient reason notices the lively poetic description of 

 two date-palms in Brindisi and Otranto by Jovianus Pontanus 

 in 1505. But nothing was gained in this way for natural 

 science. 



Treviranus in his 'Physiologic der Gewachse 1 ' (1838), II. p. 

 371, has well described the state of knowledge on this subject 



1 The passage is quoted in full in De Candolle's ' Physiologic vegetale,' 

 1835, ii. p. 44. It is said there of the pollen, ' Ipso et pulvere etiam 

 feminas maritare.' 



