340 LINN^US AND THE JUSSIEUS 



ments of the seeds [fruits] with their stalks, not a single 

 perfect triple seed [fruit] was produced, but only empty 

 vesicles, which at last withered away. In like manner 

 the fringe of styles of maize having been carefully cut 

 through, the two cobs [spicse], which afterwards appeared, 

 were devoid of seed [granum], though there were many 

 empty vesicles." ^ 



From these and similar experiments Camerarius con- 

 cluded that the anthers are necessary to the production 

 of embryos ; they are in fact the male organs, the 

 ovaries being the female. He added that botanists 

 should endeavour to find out how far the pollen pene- 

 trates the female organ. Sachs justly commends him 

 for faithfully recording his failures, due no doubt to 

 access of pollen in unsuspected ways. 



It was natural that Camerarius should take it for 

 granted that ovules are fertilised by pollen derived 

 from the same plant. Kay^ had indeed remarked the 

 wafting of pollen by the wind, but the first distinct 

 mention of pollination by insects that I can call to 

 mind is that made by Philip Miller in 1724.^ Sprengel, 

 a hundred years after Camerarius, was the first to show 

 that many flowers are regularly cross-fertilised. 



Little attention was paid at the time to these 



1 " In secunda plantarum classe, quibus flores a fructu in eadem modo 

 planta semoti sunt, binis quoque mihi exemplis patuit, quam segre ferant 

 plantse apicum defectum. Cum enira primes Ricini globes, antequam apices 

 panderent, detraxissem, et novorum proventui caute occurrissem, salvis, quae 

 aderant, seminum principiis cum suo thyrso, nusquam perfectum semen 

 tricoecum obtinui, sed vacuas vesieulas hsesisse, tandem exhaustas et corru- 

 gatas periisse eonspexi. Similiter coma Frumenti turcici jamjam pandenda 

 dextre resecta, binae postmodum spicse, omni prorsus grano destitutae, com- 

 paruerunt, utut inanium vesicularum maximus esset numerus." (Mikan's 

 reprint, pp. 75-76.) 



^ Hist. Plantarum, loc. cit. 



3 Infra^ p. 345. It is hard to be sure of a first mention, and earlier observa- 

 tions than Miller's may turn up. 



