SECT. II. DISCOVERIES OF THE MODERNS. 303 



At last, however* about the middle of the seven- Opinion of 

 teenth century, when the improved philosophy of a p ' s '' 

 Bacon had begun to be adopted even in phytology, 

 and phytologists to be directed by observation and 

 experiment rather than by hypothesis and con- 

 jecture, the doctrine of the sexes of plants began 

 also to assume a more fixed and determinate 

 character, and to exhibit the legitimate evidence of 

 being founded upon fact. Still it is difficult to say 

 who first discovered and pointed out the peculiar 

 organs by which the sexes are respectively charac- 

 terized ; not that these organs had been overlooked 

 in the description of the flower, but that their func- 

 tions had been misunderstood. Malpighi, who 

 describes not only the stamens and anthers but 

 also the pollen contained in them, regards the for- 

 mer as excretory organs contributing to the per- 

 fection of the seed, and the latter as the substance 

 excreted.* The true use of the pollen, therefore, 

 was not yet discovered ; but the merit of suggesting 

 its true use seems to be between Sir T. Millington, Of Sir T. 

 Savilian Professor at Oxford, and the celebrated Dr. f^" 

 Grew, who represents the suggestion as originating Grew - 

 with the Professor, and consisting in the expression 

 of an opinion that the stamens serve as the male 





* Vegetantium igitur, uteri gratia, reliquae floris partes, folia 

 scilicet, stamina et calyx circumlocantur in faecundis floribus, 

 Anat. Plant. 55. 



Ita determifiata succi portio per stamina et floris folia exceiv 

 nitur. Ibid. 5fr 



4 



