REPORT ON VEGETABLE PARTHENOGENESIS. i l\) 



first time in 1839. In 1844 Mr. John Smith, of the Koyal Gardens 

 at Kew, published, in the Transactions of the Linna?an Society, an 

 account of his observations on this plant, He staled that he had 

 never been able to find male flowers or pollen of any Sort, but that 

 nevertheless perfect seeds were produced end) year, from which young 

 plants were raised resembling the parent plant in every respect. Mr. 

 Smith suggested the possibility of the existence of a fertilizing power 

 in the fluid secreted by the glands above mentioned. "We shall have 

 to return to the case of Coelebogyne in a later part of this report, 

 but there are some other intermediate observations which first require 

 attention. 



In the "Annales des Sc. jS T at." Ser. III. Vol. V. Gasparini asserts 

 that the cultivated fig produces seeds without the intervention of 

 pollen. It bears (he says) two kinds of fruit, the one kind appears 

 in spring and ripens early, the other appears in summer and ripens in 

 autumn. In the former, male flowers are seldom found, and those 

 which exist cannot serve for impregnation, as they do not appear 

 until the stigma has withered. In these early fruits Gasparini never 

 found perfect seeds. In the summer fruit he never found male flow- 

 ers, and yet most of the ovaries produced seeds capable of germina- 

 tion. In order to prevent impregnation from without, Gasparini 

 closed the opening of the young fruit of the cultivated fig with gum, 

 or some other glutinous matter, and yet procured numerous perfect 

 seeds. He never found in the fruits thus experimented upon any 

 anthers or pollen-bearing organs. To these observations of Gaspa- 

 rini it has been objected — 1st. That from time immemorial the culti- 

 vated fig has been impregnated artificially by the wild fig, an opera- 

 tion which would have been a waste of trouble if perfect seeds were 

 produced without such process ; 2ndly, that the impregnation cannot 

 be watched with the necessary care, inasmuch as it takes place within 

 the receptacle of the fruit ; and 3rdly, that some observers have 

 noticed peculiar organs in the ovule of the cultivated fig, which are 

 called pollinidia, the nature of which is not yet understood. 



The next observations at which we arrive are those of M. ISaudin.* 

 He experimented with Hemp, Mercarialis, Ricinus, Bryonia, and 

 Ecbalium. He found that female plants of Hemp planted in a place 

 surrounded by high walls, and others cultivated in pots and placed in 

 a greenhouse in a garden, also surrounded by high walls, produced a 

 quantity of perfect seeds, although no male plants were near, and 

 although the females were subjected to -careful examinat ion with a 

 view to the detection of possible male organs, Pemalc plants raised 

 from these unimpregnated seeds were set apart in the house of M. 

 Decaisne, and so protected that INI. Xaudin considers it altogether 

 impossible that any pollen could have reaehed them ; and although they 

 were carefully examined by himself and M. Decaisne, no single male 

 flower was ever discovered amongst the females. His observations 



* Comptes remlucs, Vol. A-) (lSJ(i). 



