308 The Botanical Gazette. [August, 
to show how far James Logan, an American and Philadel- 
phian, contributed to lay the foundations of that doctrine 
which received its true scientific stamp from the hands of Jo- 
seph Kolreuter, Conrad Sprengel and Karl Friedrich Girtner, 
Philadelphia at the beginning of the eighteenth century 
stood for the excellence of science in America. Franklin, 
Bartram and Logan lived contemporaneously. It is to the 
little known writings of James Logan, an Irishman, governor 
of Pennsylvania, that I wish to advert. Sachs mentions him 
as one of the adherents and a founder of the sexual theoryin 
plants, one of the first to determine by direct experiment the 
necessity of the pollen (farina) to the fecundation of the ova 
(ovules). The experiments were made to controvert the 
statements of M. Geoffroy in Miller's dictionary to the effect 
that by some experiments on maize, hé (M. Geoffroy) was 
convinced that seeds may grow up to their full size and ap- 
pear perfect to the eye without being impregnated by the 
farina (pollen). James Logan states in a letter to Peter Col- 
linson, dated Philadelphia, Nov. 20, 1735, that he had reason 
to think otherwise.!_ His experiments were undertaken with . 
a definite end in view, to test the truth of M. Geoffroys 
statements. ee 
The results of the experiments were given in brief in - 
letter to Peter Collinson, and later a full account was pu 
lished in Latin in a work entitled, ‘‘Experimenta et Melet 
emata de Plantarum Generatione, etc., auctore Jacobo io 
Fudice Supremo, & Praeside Concilii Provincia P. pedine 9 
tensis in America. Wugduni Batavorum. Apu wate : 
Haak 1739,” pp. 3-13. (Preface dated Philadelphia yh . 
from the Original Latin by J. F., London, print® 
Davis, over against Gray’s Inn Gate, Holborn, ye on the 
Latin text appeared on one page, and opposite to Ke f these 
other, the English translation. Sachs mentions bot pie of 
_ works, but was unable to consult them in the prepay editioa 
his history. Dr. Fothergill’s preface to the Englis 15 eX 
is worth quoting, as an introduction to Governor Loga” Be 
periments. ee 
*Phil. Trans., 34: 192-195. 
