M. E. Kegel on Parthenogenesis. 105 



I indeed removed the immediately adjacent female flowers ; and 

 the withering away of the earliest female blossoms was the result. 

 At present, however, several appear to be swelling into fruit. 



The very abundant development of axillary flowers here is of 

 course a result of the cutting back of the plant and the removal 

 of the lateral shoots which continually break out afresh from the 

 axils, since the formative energy is wholly diverted to the deve- 

 lopment of flower-buds. A large proportion of the experimental 

 plants did not bear this injury, and soon died away. 



Whether the experimental plants of Spinacia and Mercurialis 

 perfect seeds capable of germination, or not, these experiments 

 have already fully convinced me that these two genera only de- 

 velope perfect seeds under the influence of the pollen of adven- 

 titious male flowers, and that the only possibility of preventing 

 fecundation is by daily repeated observation of every single 

 flower that unfolds, limitation of the growth of the plant to a 

 few tufts of inflorescence, and rightly-timed removal of each 

 male flower which makes its appearance. An observer who 

 merely looks over a number of female plants with thousands of 

 little flowers, cannot possibly obtain any result of the slightest 

 scientific value. Surveying therefore the conclusions drawn 

 from these experiments, it becomes evident that they have no 

 authority. 



That Ricinus and Ecbalium perfected no seed, evidently arises 

 from the fact^that in these plants the male flowers may be easily 

 enough detected in time and removed, which can scarcely be 

 accomplished with certainty in Mercurialis and Spinacia, since, 

 from the small size and close packing of the flowers^ these can 

 only be detected when too late, even if these flowers are not 

 altogether overlooked. There is no ground for making a distinc- 

 tion between monoecious and dioecious plants in this respect. 



The same is the case with the stigmas. All the flowers of my 

 experimental plants that were really protected from fecundation 

 soon withered, stigma included. When, on the other hand, fruit 

 was formed in consequence of fecundation, the stigmas persisted 

 a long time, which is by no means wonderful, considering the 

 fleshy nature of the stigmas of these plants. 



As soon as Cannabis flowers, this plant shall also be subjected 

 to careful examination. I may be permitted to notice before- 

 hand, that the results of previous observations on Cannabis have 

 been very varied. Some obtained no seeds on separate female 

 plants (Linnseus obtained this result); others obtained abundance 

 of seed. It seems to be indicated by this, that in Cannabis there 

 occur individuals bearing only female flowers, and others which 

 may resemble those of Spinacia or Mercurialis. 



We possess plants of Coelehogyne ; but, unlurtunately, none of 



