382 History of the Sexual Theory. [Book hi. 



and does not once mention the views of former writers. Mal- 

 pighi, like Cesalpino, regarded the formation of seeds as only 

 another kind of ordinary bud-formation, and propagation as 

 only another kind of nutrition. He mentions (p. 52) inci- 

 dentally that plants with unfruitful flowers are designated as 

 male, but treats this as a popular expression merely, and 

 ultimately propounds the theory that the stamens and the 

 floral envelopes remove a portion of the sap from the flower, 

 in order to purify the sap for the production of the seeds 



(p- 56). 



In all accounts of the theory of sexuality in plants, a botanist 

 otherwise unknown in history, Sir Thomas Millington, is named 

 as the person who first claimed for the stamens the character 

 of male organs of generation. The only record of the fact, 

 however, is contained in the following words of Grew in his 

 'Anatomy of Plants' (1682), ch. 5, sect. 3, p. 171 : 'In con- 

 versation on this matter (namely the connection of the stamens, 

 called by Grew the attire \ with the formation of seeds) with 

 our learned Savilian Professor Sir Thomas Millington, he told 

 me he was of opinion that the attire served as the male organ 

 in the production of the seed. I replied at once, that I was 

 of the same opinion, and gave him some reasons for it, 

 answering at the same time some objections that might be 

 brought against it.' Grew gives on p. 172 the following sum- 

 mary of his ideas on the subject 2 ; it would appear, he says, 

 that the attire serves to remove some superfluous parts of the 

 sap, as a preparatory process to the production of seed. As 

 the floral envelopes (foliature) serve to remove the volatile 

 and saline sulphur-parts, so the attire serves to lessen 



1 In the ' Compositae,' however, Grew called the single flowers the florid 

 attire, see p. 37. 



2 We may compare with this, pp. 38 and 39 of the first part of the work 

 which appeared in 1671, where Grew ascribed no sexual significance to the 

 stamenr. 



