STAMENS AND PISTILS. 321 



to perfection in different flowers at different 

 times, so that the anthers of one may im- 

 pregnate the stigmas of another, whose sta- 

 mens were abortive, or long since withered. 

 The same thing happens in other instances. 

 Linnieus mentions the Jatropha iirens as 

 producing flowers with stamens some weeks 

 in oreneral before or after the others. Hence 

 he k obtained no seed till he preserved the pol- 

 len a month or more in paper, and scattered 

 it on a few stigmas then in perfection. There 

 can be no doubt that, in a wild state, some 

 or other of the two kinds of blossoms are 

 ripe together, throughout the flowering sea- 

 son, on different trees. 



A similar experiment to that just men- 

 tioned was made in 1749 upon a Palm-tree 

 at Berlin, which for want of pollen had never 

 brought any fruit to perfection. A branch 

 of barren flowers was sent by the post from 

 Leipsic, twenty German miles distant, and 

 suspended over the pistils. Consequently 

 abundance of fruit was ripened, and many 

 young plants raised from the seeds *. 



* What species of Palm was the subject of this ex- 

 periment does not clearly appear. In the original com- 



X 



