332 SEXUALITY OF VEGETABLES. CHAP. VI. 



of Linnaeus, though capable of affording conviction 

 to the mind of the impartial inquirer, were not able 

 to subdue passions, or to eradicate prejudices im- 

 imbibed by education or excited by comparison, 

 the doctrine of the sexes of vegetables met also 

 with many opponents even in the time of Linnaeus. 

 The most zealous and redoubtable of these was Dr. 

 Alston of Edinburgh ; who, professing to be dis- 

 satisfied with every thing that had been said or done 

 in support of the doctrine, made a show of refuting 

 it by means of counter experiments, of which the 

 most formidable are the following : Admitting the 

 result of the experiment of the cutting off of the 

 anthers before the ripening of the pollen to be what 

 Linnaeus and others affirm, the abortion of the seed ; 

 he will not allow that it authorizes any conclusion 

 in favour of the sexes of plants, because he thinks 

 it is to be expected that a wound in any essential 

 part of the plant, together with consequent loss of 

 juice issuing from it, will occasion abortion in the 

 seeds : and in confirmation of the presumption he 

 quotes an experiment of Malpighi, who found that 

 the ripening of the seeds of a Tulip was prevented 

 by means of the pulling oft' of the petals before 

 their expansion. But the two experiments are not at 

 all of the same kind. In the latter there was a mate- 

 rial injury done to the flower, in consequence of its 

 being prematurely stripped of the covering of the co- 

 rolla; in the former there was no material injury done 

 to the flower, because the anthers were not cut off till 



