SECT. II. AGENCY OF THE POLLEN. 365 



half. A flower of the former species was accord- 

 ingly deprived of all its stamens, and fecundated 

 with pollen from a plant of the same species. The 

 plant raised from the seed thus obtained was an 

 hybrid, exhibiting in all its parts an intermediate 

 character betwixt the two species from which it 

 sprang. The stamens of this hybrid, as well as 

 of all others he ever raised, were imperfect ; but 

 when its pistils were impregnated with pollen from 

 the paniculata as before, the new hybrid obtained 

 from the seeds now produced was more like a pa- 

 niculata than formerly ; and when the experiment 

 was continued through several successive gene- 

 rations, it was at last converted into a perfect pa- 

 nkulata.* 



This is thought to be an infallible demonstration 

 of the truth of the doctrine of the epigenisists. 

 But why may not the pollen of one species of plant 

 be allowed to produce some particular change upon 

 the developement of the embryo of another species, 

 although that embryo should be supposed to have 

 pre-existed in the ovary ? The action of the pollen 

 thus introduced must amount to something; and 

 it is just as difficult to conceive how an individual 

 whether proper or hybrid should be generated from 

 the union of the seminal principles of two plants 

 of the same or of a different species, as from the 

 peculiar effect of the pollen of the same or of a 

 different species, upon an embryo already existing^ 

 * Willdenow, p, 323. 



