chap, i.] Rudolph Jacob Camerarius. 



will appear in the following section. Linnaeus was right when 

 he says in his ' Amoenitates ' (1749), I. p. 62, that it was 

 Camerarius who first clearly demonstrated (perspicue demon 

 stravit) the sexuality of plants and the mode of their pro 



pagation. 



2. Establishment of the Doctrine of Sexuality 



in Plants by Rudolph Jacob Camerarius. 



1691-1694. 



We have seen that all that was known with regard to 

 sexuality in plants up to 1691 was comprised in the facts 

 related by Theophrastus concerning the date-palm, the tere- 

 binth, and the ' malus medica,' and in the conjectures of Mil- 

 lirigton, Grew, and Ray, while Malpighi's views in opposition 

 to these later authors were considered to be equally well 

 founded. The sexuality of plants could only be raised to t ; i' 

 rank of a scientific fact in one way, that namely of experiment : 

 it had to be shown that no seed capable of germination could 

 be formed without the co-operation of the pollen. All historic 

 records concur in proving, that Camerarius was the first who 

 attempted to solve the question in this way, and that he fol- 

 lowed up this attempt by many other experiments. It is quite 

 another question how the fertilising matter reaches the germ 

 which is capable of being fertilised, and this could not be 

 entertained till experiment had established the fact, that the 

 pollen is absolutely indispensable to fertilisation. 



To Johann Christian Mikan, Professor of Botany in Prague, 

 is due the merit of having collected the scattered and therefore 

 almost forgotten writings of Rudolph Jacob Camerarius 1 , and 



1 Rudolph Jacob Camerarius was born at Tubingen in 1665 anil died 

 there in 1721. Having completed the course of study in philosophy and medi- 

 cine, he travelled from 1685 to 1687 in Germany, Holland. England, France, 

 and Italy. In 1688 he became Professor Extraordinary and Director of the 

 Botanic Garden in Tubingen; in 1689 Professor of Natural Philosophy; 



C C 



