SECT. III. INDUCTION OF PARTICULAR PROOFS. 327 



and luxuriant, yet the seed-buds were brown, com- 

 pressed, and membranaceous, without exhibiting 

 any appearance of cotyledons or pulp. 



Two plants of Clutia tenella were, in like manner, 

 kept growing in a window of Linnaeus's house or 

 apartments during the months of June and July 

 o^ 1753, the male plant being in one pot and the 

 female plant in another. The latter abounded with 

 flowers, not one of which proved abortive ; the pot 

 containing the male plants was after some time re- 

 moved to a different window in the same apart- 

 ment, and still the flowers that were protruded 

 under such circumstances were found to be fruitful. 

 The pot containing the male plant was at last re- 

 moved into a different apartment, and the female 

 plant left alone, after being stripped of all the flowers 

 already expanded. It continued indeed to produce 

 new flowers every day from the axils of every leaf, 

 but they proved to be all abortive. For after remain- 

 ing on the plant for the space of eight or ten days, 

 till the foot- stalks began to turn yellow, they all 

 fell barren to the ground. 



Such is the amount of the great body of evidence^ 

 whether resulting from observation or experiment, 

 on which Linnaeus has established the doctrine of 

 the sexes of vegetables, and on which the import- 

 ant and irresistible conclusion depends namely, 

 that no seed is perfected without the previous agency 

 of the pollen. 



