PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 15 



Camerarius himself did not fail to sense the possibilities latent 

 in the field of hybridization, as the following comment indicates 

 (2c, p. 49) : 



"The difRcult question, which is also a new one, is whether a female 

 plant can be fertilized by a male of another kind, the female hemp by 

 the male hops ; the castor bean from which one has removed the stami- 

 nate flowers, through pollination with the pollen of Turkish wheat 



BiLD. mDOlPHi J MOB I CAMEKAMH, 



Afel D, if P,P^ 



Acad. &fareo - Leopold N. C* Colleg* d* Hect» IL 



ji 



Ji% a MICHAELEM BERNARDUM \'ALENTIN% 



^ Prof Giijfimm ijCmiqf. JnESSJiUAi ' 



SEXU PLANTARUM 



p I <\Tn I A 



Plate XIII. Title-page of the extract from Camerarius' "De Sexu Plantarum Epistola," 

 as printed by Valentin in the Appendix to the "Ephemerides" of the "Academia 

 Caesareo-Leopoldina," 1696. 



(maize) ; and whether, and in what degree altered, a seedling will arise 

 therefrom." 



In this sentence is embodied, though in somewhat odd fashion, 

 an actual scientific conception in the matter, although no experi- 

 ments on the subject seem to have been attempted by the writer. 

 In this brief paragraph is perhaps revealed, however, the sugges- 

 tion of a new era of scientific investigation. 



It was, nevertheless, more than fifty years before Camerarius' 

 investigations upon sex in plants received substantial recognition, 

 and before the first recorded instance of an actual experiment in 

 hybridization. 



7. Linnaeus. (1707-1778.) 



The relation of Linnaeus to hybridization and the question of 

 sex in plants deserves to be discussed for the sake of the point of 



