SECT. I. ANTICIPATIONS OF THE ANCIENTS. 



a sexual distinction in plants existed, or rather was 

 a general and prevalent notion in the age of Hero- 

 dotus, that is at least 400 years before the Chris- 

 tian aera. 



Our next authority is that of Aristotle, who Aristotle, 

 maintains the doctrine of a distinction of sex in 

 plants as well as in animals,* though he admits 

 that some plants are altogether without sex ; and 

 represents the beneficial effect of the practice 

 adopted in the cultivation of the Palm, as resulting 

 from the action of the dust of the male flower, 

 quickening the maturity of the fruit, which it is 

 said to effect also equally well if it is but wafted to 

 the female flower by means of the wind. 



Theophrastus, the disciple and successor of Aris- Theo- 

 totle, who pursued his phytological investigations 

 to a much greater length than his master, maintains 

 also the doctrine of the sexuality of vegetables, 

 which he illustrates with more of detail, and exem- 

 plifies not only in the case of the Palm-tree, but in 

 that also of the Fig, and a variety of others. The 

 barren Palm he calls the male, and the fruit-bearing 

 Palm, the female; pointing out, at the same time, 

 the ground of this distinction as consisting in the 

 indispensable necessity of the co-operation of the 

 flower of the barren Palm, to the ripening of the 

 fruit of the fertile Palm ; the fruit of the fertile 

 Palm being otherwise extremely apt to fall off' before 

 it becomes ripe. But if the spathe of the male 



Zwwv. To. A. 



