CHAP, i.] Opponents of Sexuality, 1785-1849. 423 



prove sexuality in plants on philosophical grounds and paid 

 comparatively slight attention to their behaviour as shown by 

 experiment, so we have in Schelver a nature-philosopher who 

 conversely endeavoured to prove the impossibility of sexuality 

 in plants on philosophical grounds. As Linnaeus deduced 

 sexuality from the nature or idea of the plant, Schelver denied 

 it from the same nature or idea ; as a matter of logic one was 

 as much in the right as the other, but the question could not 

 be decided in this way but only by experiment. However our 

 nature-philosophers thought it advisable to get some empirical 

 support for their theories, and they found it in SPALLANZANI *. 

 He published his enquiries into fertilisation in animals and 

 plants under the title 'Experiences pour servir a 1'histoire de 

 la generation des animaux et des plantes,' Geneva, 1786; his 

 account of those relating to plants, with which only we are 

 concerned, betrays a very defective acquaintance with botanical 

 literature, for he reckons Cesalpino among those who had 

 admitted sexuality in plants. His experiments themselves 

 testify to very slight knowledge of the biological considerations 

 by which the cultivation of plants for experiment must be 

 guided, and generally little botanical acumen, as is often the 

 case with amateurs who without sufficient preparation suddenly 

 turn their attention to questions of vegetable physiology ; his 

 treatment of his topics is superficial, his criticism of others is 

 dogmatic and bitter without exciting confidence in the author's 

 own skill and judgment. His experiments were often under- 

 taken in haste and with little consideration, and some of them 

 were made on plants the least suitable for such investigations, as 



1 Lazaro Spallanzani was born at Scandiano in Modena, and died at 

 Pavia in 1 799, where he was for a long time Professor of Natural History. 

 He made researches in very various questions of natural science, and 

 especially in animal physiology ; but they seem to have been conducted 

 with the same want of care and deliberation which appears in his experi- 

 ments on sexuality in plants. A long article in the ' Biographic Univer- 

 selle' gives a detailed account of his scientific labours. 



