OF NATURAL HISTORY. 249 



©f male trees fixed to the females by Arabian gardeners, who al- 

 ledged, that, unlefs this operation were performed, their dates would 

 neither be good nor plentiful. . This practice can boaft of an anti- 

 quity long prior to the notion of fexes in plants. How it came to be 

 introduced, it is of little importance to inquire. We know that the 

 cuftom is ftill faid to prevail : But we likewife know, that there is not 

 an authentic fad which fhows any connedion between the praSlice 

 and the event, though that be an eflential ingredient in the contro- 

 verfy. The eaftern nations are famous for introducing fuperftition 

 into every part of their oeconomy ; and it is equally oiflicuk to ac- 

 count for their manners as for their culture ot palm-trees. 



Mylius's letter to Dr Watfon, recorded in the Philofophical Tranf- 

 aftions, is an attempt to remove this difficulty, and to (how a necef- 

 fary connexion between the male and female palm. Mylius writes 

 to his correfpondent, ' That a female palm-tree grew many years 



* in the garden belonging to the Royal Academy at Berlin, without 

 ' producing any ripe or fertile fruit ; that a male branch, with its 

 ' flowers in full blow, was brought from Leipfic, about twenty Ger- 

 ' man miles from Berlin, and fufpended over the female tree. The 



* refult was, that the female yielded, the firft year, 100 ripe dates- 



* The fame experiment being repeated the following year, 2000 ripe 



* fruit were produced.' 



Not to call Mylius's veracity in queftion, the experiment is both 

 inconclufive and defedive. Berlin is not the climate of palm-trees. 

 The tree, he informs us, bore flowers and fruit for thirty years be- 

 fore the trial was made ; but the fruit, it is faid, never came to ma- 

 turity. Plants feldom produce ripe fruit in a climate not adapted to 

 their nature, until they have grown there a long lime. Mylius's 

 palm-tree had carried unripe fruit for thirty years. According to the 

 ufual courfe of exotic plants, therefore, it is natural to think, that, 

 t I I i like 



