CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 



1 



2 



3 



4 



5 

 6 



Early experiments in plant breeding 1 



Date culture in early Babylonia and Assyria i 



The relation of the date palm to plant breeding 4 



Variation and selection of the date 7 



The discovery of sex in plants 9 



Camerarius 12 



Linnaeus 15 



CHAPTER n 



8. Kolreuter 34 



CHAPTER in 



9. Miscellaneous experiments regarding sex in plants 62 



10. Gleditsch's palm pollination experiments 70 



11. Christian Konrad Sprengel 78 



CHAPTER IV 



12. Thomas Andrew Knight 85 



13. William Herbert 94 



14. John Goss and Alexander Seton 102 



15. The experiments of Thomas Laxton 104 



16. The work of Patrick Shirreff llO 



CHAPTER V 



17. The experiments of Sageret 120 



18. Godron and Naudin on hybridization 123 



19. Ve riot's memoir on the breeding of plants 136 



20. The work of the Vilmorins 143 



21. Lecoq's memoir on hybridization 154 



4:.^H5a 



