1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



265 



cundation, which is almost the only article in their 

 culture. Fourthly, on openinjT the spatha he finds 



all the male flowers full of a liquid, which resem-^ of the male, could only liave happened by means 



stance which authors have recorded, ofthe female 

 ■hemp having produced seed.>' although deprived 



bles the finest dew ; it is of a sweet and pleasan 

 taste, resemblinir much the taste of li-esh dates, 

 but much more refined antl aromatic; this was 

 hkewise confirmed by my interpreter, who had 

 lived thirty-two years in Ei^ypt, and therelore, 

 had opportunities enouirh. of tasting both the nec- 

 tar of the blossoms and the fresh dates." 



This letter was written at a time when the sex- 

 uality of the organs of plants was a matter of 

 controversy among botanis's. Since then it has 

 been settled by experiments of the most satis- 

 factory nature, whic'i have been often repeated. 

 Among these experiments there are none which 

 are more satisfactory, oralibrd a better exam pie of 

 what experiments on such a subject should be, 

 than those ofLinnasus; and lor these reasons I 

 shall give them in full, from Smith's translation o( 

 'Linna?us' Dissertation on the sexes of plants,' 

 published as early as 1769. 



"In the month of January 1760, the autholyza 

 cunonia flowered in a pot in my parlor, but pro- 

 duced no fruit, the air of the room not being suffi- 

 ciently agitated to waft the pollen to the stigma. 

 One day about noon, seeing the stigma very moist, 

 1 plucked oil' one of the anthera^, by means of a 

 small pair of forceps, and gently rubbed it on one 

 of the expanded stigmata. The spike of flowers 

 remained eight or ten days longer ; when I ob- 

 served, on gathering the branch for my herbarium, 

 that the fruit of that flower only on which the ex- 

 periment had been made had swelled to the size 

 of a bean. 1 then dissected this fruit, and disco- 

 vered that one of the three cells contained seeds 

 in considerable numbers, the other two being en- 

 tirely withered. 



"In the month of April I sowed the seed of 

 hemp (cannabis) in two different pots. The young 

 plants came up so plentifully that each pot con- 

 tained 30 or 40. I placed each by the light of a 

 window, but in different and remote apartments. 

 The hemp grew extremely well in both pots. In 

 one of them, I permitted the male and female 

 plants to remain together, to flower and bear fruit, 

 which ripened in July; and being maceratcid in 

 water, and committed to the earth, sprung up in 

 twelve days. From the other, however, I re- 

 moved all the male plant's as soon as they were 

 old enough for me to distinguish them from the fe- 

 males. The remaining females grew very well. 

 and presented their long pistilla in great altun- 

 dance, these flowers continuing a very long time, 

 as if in expectation of their mates; while the 

 plants in the other pot had already ripened their 

 fruit, their pistilla having, quite in a different man- 

 ner, faded as soon as the males had discharged all 

 their pollen. It was certainly a beautiful and tru- 

 Jy admirable spectacle, to see the unimpregnated 

 females preserve their pistilla so long green and 

 flourishing, not permitting them to begin to fade 

 till they liad been lor a considerable time exposed 

 in vain, to the male pollen. Afterwards, when 

 these virgin plants beiran to decay through age, I 

 examined all their calyces in the presence o{ seve- 

 ral botanists, and found them large and flourish- 

 ing, although every one of the seed-buds was 

 brown, compressed, membranaceous, and dry; not , 

 exhibiting any appearance of cotyledon or pulp. 

 Hence i am perfectly convinced, that the circum- 

 VoL. VII-34 



f pollen brought by the v/iiid ll'om some distant 

 place. No experiment can be m,ore ea.sily per- 

 formed than the above ; none more satisliACtory in 

 deninnslrating the sexuality of plants. 



"The clulia ienella was in like manner ke;)t 

 growing in my window, through the months ot 

 June and July. The male plant was in one pot, 

 and the female in another. The latter abounded 

 in fruit, not one of its flowers proving abortive. I 

 removed the two pots into difl'erent windows ofthe 

 same apartment; still all the female flowers con- 

 tinued to become fruitful. At length I look away 

 the male entirely, leaving the female alone, and 

 cutting off all the flowers which it had already 

 borne. Everyday new ones appeared from the 

 axils of the leaves ; each remaining eight or ten 

 days; after which, their li)ot-stalks turning yello^r, 

 they liill barren to the ground. A botanical friend, 

 who had amused himself with observing this phe- 

 nomenon with me, persuaded me to bring from the 

 stove" (or hot-house, as it is more commonly 

 termed in this country) "in the garden, a single 

 male flower, which he placed over one of the 

 female ones, then in perfection, tying a piece of 

 red silk round its pislillum, to mark it. The next 

 day, the male gower was taken away, and this sin- 

 gle seed-bud remained, and bore li'uit. Afterwards, 

 I took another male flower out of the same stove, 

 and with a pair of slender liirceps pinched off one 

 of its ambers, which I alierwards gently scratched 

 with a feather, so that a very small portion of its 

 pollen was discharged upon one of the three stig- 

 mata of a fe-male flower, the two oilier stiiimata 

 being covered with paper. This fruit likewise at- 

 tained its due size ; and on being cut transversely, 

 exhibited one cell filled with large seed, and the 

 other two empty. The rest of the flowers, being 

 unimpregnated, fiided and fell off. This experi- 

 ment may be performed with as little trouble as 

 the former. 



"The datiscn cannabina (or false hemp) came 

 upin my garden from seed, ten years ago, and 

 has every year been plentifully increased by means 

 of its perennial roots. Flowers in great numbers 

 have been produced by it ; but being all li^males, 

 they proved abortive. Being c'esirous of obtain- 

 ing nuile plants, I procured more seed from Paris. 

 Some more plants Avere raised; but these like- 

 wise, to my great mortification, all proved Itjmales, 

 and bore flowers, but no fruit. In the year 1757, 

 I received another^ parcel of seed. Fro.n these I 

 obtained a lew male plants, which flowered in 

 1758. These were planted at a great distance 

 li'om the females : and when their flowers were 

 just ready to emit their pollen, holding a paper un- 

 der them, I gently shook the spike, or panicle, 

 with my finger, till the paper was almost covered 

 with the yellow powder. I carried tlii.s- to the fe- 

 males, which were flowering ia another part of 

 the garden, and placed it over them. A cold night 

 soon afier destroyed these datiscus, with many 

 other plants much earlier than usual. Neverthe- 

 less, when I examined the flowers of those plants 

 which I had sprinkled with the fcirtilizing powder, 

 I found the seeds of their due magnitude, whilst 

 in more remote datiscus, which had not been im- 

 pregnated with pollen, no trace,*} of seeds were vi- 

 sible. 



