258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



animalculisni was, however, limited to the vegetable kingdom. He 

 did not aspire to extend it to the other kingdom. To explain the con- 

 tradiction which thus appeared between the fecundation of animals 

 and that of plants, he regarded the vegetable ovule as a male organ, 

 and the grain of pollen, producer of the embryo, as a female organ. 

 The announcement of this discovery came like a clap of thunder. It 

 soon had enthusiastic partisans and angry critics. The critics were in 

 the right, the partisans were at fault ; but what does it matter now ? 

 Schleiden had again given a powerful impulse to the spirit of investi- 

 gation, and that is the essential thing. His memoir, otherwise, is far 

 from containing anything good or exact." 



" Schleiden had disciples who were eager to adopt the doctrine of 

 their master and promulgate it. At the same time, however, Mirbel 

 and Brongniart skillfully guarded their opinions, and Meyen attempted 

 a formal refutation of the new theory. A general and hot contest 

 arose and lasted for more than twenty years, in which all the distin- 

 guished botanists of every country became engaged. Amici in 1842 

 confirmed and extended the previous observations of Mirbel, Spach, 

 and Brongniart. He asserted that he had seen the embryo produced 

 at the expense of a part of the embryonary sac, and this seemed to 

 settle the question against Schleiden. Schleiden, however, hastened 

 quickly to refute Amici's assertion. The great Modenese naturalist 

 returned to the charge with his observations on the orchids. In 1850 

 the Academy of Amsterdam crowned a work of Schacht, a disciple of 

 Schleiden's, who vigorously defended his master's theory. Tulasne, 

 Hugo Mohl, Brongniart, Ch. Midler, and Hofmeister came forward to 

 oppose it. It gave way and seemed to be dead ; then it rose again 

 and renewed the contest. On the 19th of December, 1854, Schacht 

 triumphantly announced to the congress of naturalists, at Berlin, that 

 a young man, Th. Deecke, a partisan, like himself, of Schleiden's doc- 

 trine, but more fortunate than he, had succeeded in making a micro- 

 scopic preparation of Pedicularis sylvatica which was of such a nature 

 as to reduce for ever to silence the adversaries of that theory. This 

 preparation had a great repute. The story was passed around from 

 city to city, but, while Schacht pretended that it was unanswerable, 

 Hugo Mohl declared that he saw nothing conclusive in it. This was the 

 last flickering of the theory of Schleiden. Radekofer published numer- 

 ous observations against it in 1856, and announced at the same time 

 that* Schleiden had himself abandoned the theory which he had put 

 forward. Shortly afterward, Schacht also acknowledged that he had 

 been in error, and the theory, left dead on the battle-field, was buried 

 for good." 



With the vitality which Schleiden and his contemporaries had in- 

 fused into botany a new era was inaugurated for the science. To 

 mark its coming and extend the comprehension of the principles and 

 aspirations. of the new school, were needed a compendious and method- 



