PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



17 



The growth of the concept Is taken as analogous to the growth 

 of a river, by small, insensible degrees. The fact is alluded to, 

 that the ancient cultivators of palms, figs, and the pistacio (dioe- 

 cious plants) attained to a certain knowledge of the fact, to the 

 extent that it was found necessary to suspend the male flowers 

 over the females, if fruit was to be obtained. It is noted by Lin- 

 naeus, that after the Renaissance, and even in the seventeenth 

 century, botanists in general adhered to the "pristine ignorance" 



Plate XV. Carl von Linne, 1707-1778. 



