78 CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 the seed. Many evident instances of this present themselves to 

 our notice; but I have nowhere seen it more manifest than in the 

 Jacobean Lily (Amarylis formosissima) , the pistillum of which, when 

 sufficient heat is given the plant to make it flower in perfection, is 

 bent downwards and from its stigma issues a drop of limpid fluid, 

 so large that one would think it in danger of falling to the ground. 

 It is, however, gradually reabsorbed into the style about three or 

 four o'clock and becomes invisible until about ten the next morning, 

 when it appears again ; by noon it attains its largest dimensions ; and 

 in the afternoon, by a gentle and scarcely perceptible decrease it re- 

 turns to its source. If we shake the antherse over the stigma, so 

 that the pollen may fall on this limpid drop, we see the fluid soon 

 after become turbid and assume a yellow color; and we perceive 

 little rivulets, or opaque streaks running from the stigma towards the 

 rudiments of the seed. Some time afterwards, when the drop has 

 totally disappeared, the pollen may be observed adhering to the 

 stigma, but of an irregular figure, having lost its original form. 

 No one, therefore, can assent to what Morland and others have 

 asserted, that the pollen passes into the stigma, pervades the style 

 and enters the tender rudiments of the seed, as Leeuwenhoeck sup- 

 posed his worms to enter the ova. A most evident proof of the 

 falsehood of this opinion may be obtained from any species of 

 Mirabilis (Marvel of Peru), whose pollen is so very large that it 

 almost exceeds the style itself in thickness, and, falling on the 

 stigma, adheres firmly to it; that organ sucking and exhausting the 

 pollen, as a cuttle fish devours everything that comes within its 

 grasp. One evening in the month of August, I removed all the 

 stamina from three flowers of the Mirabilis Longiflora, at the same 

 time destroying all the rest of the flowers which were expanded; I 

 sprinkled these three flowers with the pollen of Mirabilis Jalappa; 

 the seed-buds swelled, but did not ripen. Another evening I per- 

 formed a similar experiment, only sprinkling the flowers with the 

 pollen of the same species; all these flowers produced ripe seeds. 



Some writers have believed that the stamina are parts of the 

 fructification, which serve only to discharge an impure or excremen- 

 titious matter, and by no means formed for so important a work as 

 generation. But it is very evident that these authors have not 

 sufficiently examined the subject; for, as in many vegetables, some 



