LINNAEUS 85 



trees flowering with me so fortunately that one of them brought forth 

 its first female blossoms at the time that male ones began to appear 

 on the other. I eagerly ran to collect antherse from the first plant, 

 in order to scatter them over the newly-expanded females, in hopes 

 of obtaining seed from them, which no botanist has yet been able 

 to do. But when I came to examine the antherae I found even the 

 largest of them absolutely empty and void of pollen, consequently 

 unfit for impregnating the females ; the seeds of this plant, therefore, 

 can never be perfected in our gardens. I do not doubt, however, 

 that real male plants of this species may be found in its native 

 country, bearing flowers without fruit, which the gardeners have 

 neglected ; while the females in this country produce imperfect fruit, 

 without seeds, like the female fig; and, like that tree, are increased 

 easily by suckers. The fruit, therefore, of the plaintain-tree scarcely 

 attains anything like its due size, the larger seed-buds only ripening, 

 without containing anything in them. 



The day would sooner fail me than examples. A female date- 

 bearing palm flowered many years at Berlin, without producing any 

 seeds. But the Berlin people taking care to have some of the blossoms 

 of the male tree, which was then flowering at Leipsic, sent them by 

 the post, they obtained fruit by that means ; and some dates, the off- 

 spring of this impregnation, being planted in my garden, sprung up, 

 and to this day continue to grow vigorously. Koempfer formerly 

 told us how necessary it was found by the oriental people, who live 

 upon the produce of palm-trees, and are the true Lotophagi, to plant 

 some male trees among the females, if they hoped for any fruit; 

 hence, it is the practice of those who make war in that part of the 

 world to cut down all the male palms, that a famine may afflict their 

 proprietors; sometimes even the inhabitants themselves destroy the 

 male trees, when they dread an invasion, that their enemies may find no 

 sustenance in the country. 



Leaving these instances, and innumerable others, which are so 

 well known to botanists that they would by no means bear the appear- 

 ance of novelty, and can only be doubted by those persons who neither 

 have observed nature, nor will they take the trouble to study her, I 

 pass to a fresh subject, concerning which much new light is wanted ; 

 I mean hybrid, or mule vegetables, the existence and origin of which 

 we shall now consider. 



