266 



F A R M E R S ' Jt E G I S T E R . 



ONo. 5 



"Several species of momordica cultivated with j " I removed an urn, in which the asphodelus 

 us, like other Indian vecretables, in close stoves, Ifisliilosus was grovvintr, to one corner oC the gar 



have frequently borne female flowers ; which, a 

 though at first very vigorous, after a short time 

 have constantly faded, and turned yellow, without 

 perfecting any seed, till 1 instructed the gardener 

 as soon as he observed a female flower, to gather 

 a male one, and place it above the female. By 

 this contrivance we are so certain of obtaining 

 fruit, that we dare pledge ourselves to make any 

 i'emale flower fertile that shall be fixed upon. 



" The jatroplui urens has flowered every year 

 in my hot-house ; but the female flowers coming 

 before the males, in a week's time dropped iheir 

 petals, and fiided before the latter were opened; 

 from this cause no fruit had been produced, but 

 the gerraina themselves had fallen off. We have 

 therefore never had any fruit of the jatropha till 

 the year 1752, when the male flowers were in full 

 vicor on a tall tree at the same time the female^ 



den, and from one of the flowers, v/liich had late- 

 ly opened, I extracted its anthers ; this caused the 

 impregnation to fail. Another day I treated ano- 

 ther flower iri the same manner; but bringing a 

 flower from a plant in a different |)art of the gar- 

 den, with which I sprinkled the pistil of the muti- 

 lated one, its germen became by this means fruit- 

 ful. 



" Ixia chinensis, flowering in my stove, the 

 windows of which were all shut, all its flowers 

 proved abortive. 1 therefore, took some of its an- 

 thers in a pair of pincers, and with them sprinkled 

 the pistils of two flowers, and the next day one 

 stigma only of a third flower ; the seed-buds of 

 these flowers remained, grew to a large size, and 

 bore seed; the fruit of the third however, contain- 

 ed perfect seed in only one of its three cells. To 

 relate more experiments would only be to iiatigue 



be'o-an to appear on a small jatropha which was the reader unnecessarily. Every flower bears 



growing in a garden pot. I placed this pot under 

 the other tree, by which means the female flow- 

 ers bore seed, which grew on being sown. I have 

 frequently since, amused myself with taking the 

 male flowers from one plant, and scattering them 

 over the female flowers of another, and have al- 

 ways found the seed of the latter impregnated in 

 this way. 



" Two years ago, I placed a piece of paper un- 

 der some of these male flowers, and afterwards 

 folded up the pollen which had fallen upon it, pre- 

 serving it so folded up, if 1 remember aright, four 

 or six weeks, at the end of which time another 

 branch of the same jatropha was in blossom. I 

 then took the pollen which I had so long preserved 

 in paper, and strewed it over three female flow- 

 ers, the only ones at that lime expanded. These 

 three females proved fruitful, while all the rest 

 which grew in the same bunch fell oflT abortive. 



" The interior petals of the ornithos;alam can- 

 odejtse," (commonly called Star of Bethlehem) 

 "cohere so closely together, that they only just 

 admit the air to the germen, and will scarcely per- 

 mit the pollen of another flower to pass ; this 

 flower produced every day new flowers and fruit, 

 the fructification never failing, in any instance; 

 1 therefore, with the utmost care, extracted the 

 anthers from one of these flowers with a hooked 

 needle ; and as I expected, this single flower 

 proved barren. This experiment was repeated 

 about a week afterwards, with the same eflect. 



"I removed all the anthers out of a flower of 

 the scarlet-horneti poppy, {chelidonium cornicula- 

 tuin,j which was growing in a remote part of the 

 garden, upon the first opening of its petals, and 

 stripped ofl' all the rest of the flowers; another day 

 I treated another flower of the same plant in a 

 similar manner, but sprinkled the pistil of this 

 with the pollen borrowed from another plant of 

 the same species ; the result was, that whilst, the 

 first flower produced no fruit, tlie second afforded 

 very perfect seed. My design in this experiment 

 was to prove, that the mere removal of the an- 

 thers from a flower, is not of itself sufiicient to 

 render the germ abortive. 



" Having tiie nicotiana frutlcaia growing in a 

 garden pot and producing plenty of flowers and 

 seed, I extracted the anthers fiom a newly ex- 

 panded flower before they had burst, at the same 

 time cutting away all the other flowers; this germ 

 produced no fruit, nor did it even swell. 



witness to the truth of the doctrine i have endea- 

 voured to inculcate." 



Adopting as true the doctrine of the sexuality 

 of the stamens and pistils of plants, and of the 

 production of the seed by their joint action — a 

 doctrine which Linnasus has established by expe- 

 riments as ingenious and satisfactery as those just 

 detailed — we may notice in the habits of plants, 

 and also in their structure and the position of their 

 several parts, a remarkable adaptation to this end. 

 In perfect flowers, the stamens or fertilizing or- 

 gans are always situated immediately around the 

 pistils, or fructifying organs; and arc generally of 

 such a length as is most suitable for scattering the 

 pollen on the stigma. In flowers which naturally 

 stand in an erect position, the stamens are then 

 longer, or at least of the same length as the pis- 

 tils ; whilst in nodding flowers, as in those of spot- 

 ted lily, {lilium canad^cnse,) the stamens are short- 

 er than the pistils. As the pollen naturally de- 

 scends by its own gravity, the relative length of 

 these organs is evidently that which is best fitted 

 lor throwing it upon the pistil. The anthers, or 

 pollen cases, are possessed of a very considerable 

 elastic spring, which, when they burst, serves to 

 throw the pollen upon the stigma. Sometimes, in 

 erect flowers, we find the stamens much shorter 

 tiian the pistil. In such cases, we will generally 

 notice some especial contrivance for throwing the- 

 pollen upon the pistil, A very curious contri- 

 vance of this kind is presented in the flowers of 

 the laurel, or ivy as it is cemmonly called, (ral- 

 mia.) In the sides of the cup-shaped corolla of 

 that flower, there are a number of folds, which sur- 

 round the anther in the unexpanded state of the 

 flower, and retain it for some time afler the corolla 

 has opened. In this position the filament is ne- 

 cessarily bent, with its convex side turned out- 

 wards, and thus is it retained until the action of 

 the sun has sufliciently increased its elasticity to 

 enable it to break loose, and snap its pollen upon 

 the stigma. The stigma itself is covered with a 

 gummy liquid, which enables it to retain the pol- 

 len cast upon it. 



Where the stamens and pistils are in diflferent 

 flowers upon the same plant, the staminate flow- 

 ers are generally situated higher upon the stem, 

 than the pistillate, as in the Indian corn (s^ect- 

 viays) in which (as has been already remarked) 

 the staminate flowers form the tassel, and (he pis- 



