106 



The Journal of Heredity 



plants possess sex as do animals, but 

 noc a single experiment is recorded until 

 Camerarius, attacking the problem in 

 the modern way, by means of an ex- 

 perimental garden and a microscope, 

 found that sex actually exists in plants 

 as it exists in animals. The knowledge 

 of this fact opened the way for the 

 work of experimental plant breeding. 

 As we have seen, "plant breeding," 

 strictly so-called, means the production 

 of new types of plants as the result of 

 crossing. Therefore, the science of 

 breeding involves a knowledge of, first, 

 the fact of sex, and second, of the be- 

 havior of hybrids. Thus the barrier 

 to progress in plant breeding was re- 

 moved by Camerarius' discovery of sex 

 in plants. 



Nor did his searching mind fail to 

 sense the great possibilities latent in 

 the field of hybridization which were 

 involved in this discovery, for he says 

 in passing (p. 49) : 



"Ihe clitticult question, which is also 

 a new one, is whether a female plant 

 can be fertilized by a male of another 

 kind, the female hemp by the male 

 hops ; the castor bean from which one 

 has removed the staminate flowers, 

 through pollination with the pollen of 

 Turkish wheat (maize) ; and whether, 

 and in what degree altered, a seedling- 

 will arise therefrom." 



In this striking sentence we find out- 

 lined, although in fantastic guise, the 

 germinal conception which underlies all 

 plant breeding, viz., the creation, 

 through crossing, of new and hitherto 

 unknown types. In this brief para- 

 graph we glimpse the fresh spirit of a 

 new era of scientific investigation. 



Camerarius, however, seems never 

 himself to have attempted the artificial 

 crossing of plants, and it was a full 

 hundred years before his discovery i"e- 

 garding sex in plants received any rec- 

 ognition whatsoever, and before we find 

 the first recorded instance of an actual 

 experiment in hybridization. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



1. Aristotle (384-322 B. C). For his views 

 on sex in plants, see Sachs, "History of 



Botany 1530-1860," p. 376. (Trans, from the 

 German by Garnsey and Balfour, Clarendon 

 Press, Oxford, 1906), and further, Ernst 

 Meyer, ' Jeschichte der Botanik" (History of 

 Botany), p. 98, cited by Sachs. 



2. Camerarius, R. J. (1665-1721) : "De sexu 

 plantarum epistola" ("Concerning the Se.x 

 of Plants). Translated into German, by M. 

 Mobius, in Ostwald's "Klassiker der Exakten 

 Wissenschaften" (Classics of the Exact Sci- 

 ences.) Leipzig, Germany. Wilhelm Engel- 

 mann (1899). 



3. Fairchild, David G. : Persian Gulf Dates 

 and Their Introduction Into America." U. S. 

 Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Ind. 

 Bull. 54 (December 19, 1963). 



4. Hohn, Victor : "Kulturpflanzen and 

 Haustiere in ihren "tJbergang aus Asien nach 

 Griechenland und Italien, so wie in das 

 librige Europa" (cultivated plants and do- 

 mestic animals in their transition from Asia 

 to Greece and Italy, as well as into the rest 

 of Europe). 8th Ed. Berlin (1911). 



5. Kazwini, Mohammed Ben-mohammed : 

 "The marvels of nature and the singularities 

 of created things"; extracts quoted (in 

 French translation) in "Chrestomathie Arabe, 

 ou extraits de divers scrivains Arabes, tant 

 en prose qu'en vers, a I'usage eleves de I'ecole 

 speciale des Langues Orientales" (Arabic 

 chrestomathy, or extracts from various Ara- 

 bic authors, as well in prose as in verse, for 

 the use of the pupils of the Special School of 

 Oriental languages) by A. I. Silvestre de 

 Sacy, 3: 371-499 (Paris, 1806). The ex- 

 tracts quoted herein are from pp. 378-380. 



6. Kearney, Thomas H. : (a) 'The Date 

 Gardens of the Jerid." A'at'l Gcog. Mag. 21 : 

 543 (July, 1910). (b) "The country of the 

 Ant. Men." Nat'l Gcog. Mag. 22: 267 (April, 

 1911). 



7. Mason, S. C. : "Dates of Egypt and the 

 Sudan." U. S. Dept. of Agri. Bull. 71 (Sep- 

 tember, 1915). 



8. Pliny (Gadius Plinius Secundus, A. D. 

 23-79) : Historia Mundi (History of the 

 World), cited in Sachs, "History of Boiany," 

 p. 378. Passage from Pliny cited in De Can- 

 dolle. "Physiologic Vegetale," 2:44 (1835). 



9. Popenoe, Paul B. : ' Babylonian Dates 

 for California." Pomona College Journal of 

 Economic Botany. 3:459 (May, 1913). 



10. Swingle, Walter 'T. : "The Date Palm 

 and Its Utilization in the Southwestern 

 States." U. S. Dept. of Agric. Bur. of PI. 

 Ind. Circular 19 (June, 1913). 



11. Theophrastus (372-287 B. C.) : 



((/) "Concerning the Causes of Plants." 

 .\ botanical work in six books. See Book I, 

 chapters 13, 14, and Book IV, chapter 4. 



(/)) "The History of Plants." Botanical 

 work in nine books. Book II, chapter 8. 

 Both the citations are from the edition of 

 Gottlieb Schneider, Leipzig, 1818, cited in 

 Sachs, "History of Botany," pp. 377, 378. 



