33O SEXUALITY OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. VI. 



in which the style, as he rightly remarked, does 

 often not appear till after the stamens have fallen. 

 But although the styles remain often inconspicuous 

 till the period assigned by Pontedera, yet the stigma 

 is previously mature, and consequently capable of 

 the necessary co-operation. 



Answered. But if the fact had been precisely what it appears 

 to be in the objection, still it would have afforded 

 no formidable argument against the doctrine of the 

 sexes. For as the several flowers of the same plant, 

 and much more the flowers of different plants, do 

 not all come to maturity precisely at the same time, 

 the flower whose stamens have fallen before the ma- 

 turity of its pistil, may still be impregnated by the 

 pollen of another flower or plant with which the 

 period of its maturity is identical, and to which it 

 may be contiguous. And in this way, we may 

 believe, the impregnation of many flowers is effected, 

 particularly in the case of Zea Mays or India Corn, 

 the barren flowers of which upon the same plants 

 have generally quite decayed before the fertile 

 flowers have burst from the bosom of the leaves, at 

 least as it grows in this country ; as also in the case 

 of the Jatropha urens> the barren floweres of which 

 are generally protruded either several weeks sooner 

 or several weeks later than the fertile flowers, and 

 are consequently either decayed or not yet come to 

 maturity at the time the style is perfect. 



But if the fertile flower or plant should not be 

 contiguous to the barren flower or plant, the pollen 



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