64 ON THE PROPAGATION 



Pistachio (Pistacia lentiscus.) It was also early observed 

 that the seeds of the one plant are never perfected, unless 

 a specimen of the other form grows and flowers simul- 

 taneously in its vicinity. e Theophrastus and Pliny even, 

 tell us that the country-people who were engaged in the 

 culture of Dates, hung up flowering branches of the one 

 tree among the flowers of the other, the seed-bearing form, 

 and thus caused the development of the seed and fruit. 

 Kampfer relates that in an inroad of the Turks into 

 Bassora, the inhabitants accomplished the expulsion of 

 the enemy, solely by hastily cutting down all the palms 

 of the one kind, so that the others remained sterile, 

 whereby the enemy was deprived of his only source 

 of food. Still more striking appear the proceedings 

 observed by Micheli, in an Italian water-plant, (Vallisneria 

 spiralis.) This plant has two different kinds of flowers ; 

 those in which the seeds are developed have long stalks, and 

 elevate themselves to the surface of the water ; the others 

 are shortly-stalked, and therefore fixed at the bottom. At 

 a particular period, the latter break away from their stems, 

 come to the surface and swim to the others, which then 

 become capable of perfecting their seeds. 



This fanciful account, which, however, is not supported 

 by any accurate scientific observation, led the way to the 

 making of husband and wife of these two flowers, to 

 investing the natural phenomena in question with the 

 mysteries of the love with which the human heart is 

 blessed. Scarcely was the idea broached when science 

 seized upon it, extended it, in all its particulars, to all 

 plants, and even at the present time we call the Linneean 

 arrangement of plants, the sexual system. 



Unfortunately, these beautiful dreams, which poets 

 especially have so often tenderly dwelt upon, were attacked 



