78 TALKH AFIELD. 



and others fertile. Sex was probably first 

 clearly perceived by Zaluzianski, a native of 

 Poland, who wrote early in 1600. Nehemiah 

 Grew, of England, in 1682, was more pre- 

 cise in his definitions and remarks concerning 

 the stamens and pistils. In 1694, Jacques 

 Camerarius, a German, gave the first deci- 

 sive proof that sexes occur in plants just as 

 truly as in animals, and his letter upon the 

 subject, " De Sexu Plantarum," has become 

 celebrated. The statements made by Came- 

 rarius obtained currency among naturalists, 

 and they were generally accepted. Tourne- 

 fort, however, was incredulous, but one of 

 his pupils, Sebastian Vaillant, publicly pro- 

 fessed his belief in the sexes of plants. It 

 is said that Linnaeus first obtained his idea 

 of sex from reading Vaillant' s dissertation, 

 which he had found by accident. Linnaeus' 

 own observations soon confirmed the imper- 

 fect statements of his instructor, and it was 

 not long before he startled the world with 

 the doctrine of universal sexuality in flower- 

 ing plants, and built thereon his system of 

 classification. 



For nearly a hundred years it was sup- 

 posed that the pollen grains, after they had 

 fallen upon the stigma, burst open and dis- 



