280 



CHAPTER VI. 



FERTILISATION. HYBRID PLANTS. 



Having alread}', in the last chapter, explained the separate 

 action of the stamens and pistils, I shall now confine myself 

 to the consideration of their physical effect upon each other. 



The duty of the stamens is to produce the matter called 

 pollen, which has the power of fertilising the pistil through 

 its stigma. The stamens are, therefore, the representatives in 

 plants of the male sex, the pistil of the female sex. 



The old philosophers, in tracing analogies between plants and 

 animals, were led to attribute sexes to the former, chiefly in 

 consequence of the practice among their countrymen of 

 artificially fertilising the female flowers of the date with 

 those which they considered male, and also from the existence 

 of a similar custom with regard to figs. , This opinion, 

 however, was not accompanied by any distinct idea of the 

 respective functions of particular organs, as is evident from 

 their confounding causes so essentially different as fertilisation 

 and caprification ; nor was it generally applied, although Pliny, 

 when he said that " all trees and herbs are furnished with 

 both sexes," may seem to contradict this statement; at least, 

 he pointed out no particular organ in which they resided. 

 Nor does it appear that more distinct evidence existed of the 

 universal sexuality of vegetables till about the year 1676, 

 when it was for the first time clearly pointed out by Sir 

 Thomas Millington and Gi'ew. Claims are, indeed, laid to 

 a priority of discovery over the latter observer by Caesalpinus, 

 Malpighi, and others ; but there is nothing so precise in their 

 works as we find in the declaration of Grew, " that the attire 

 (meaning stamens) do serve as the male for the generation of 

 the seed." It would not be consistent with the plan of this 

 work to enter into any detailed account of the gradual 

 advances which such opinions made in the world, nor to 



