LINN^US 323 



as the work of the latter. After a review of the history 

 of the sexual theory the Fundamenta Botanica of 

 Linnaeus receives undue praise, for in this treatise, we 

 are told, the sexes of plants are established with such 

 certainty that no one could hesitate to build upon so 

 solid a foundation an extensive system of botany. The 

 functions of the various parts of the flower are explained. 

 One fact is mentioned which seems to have impressed 

 Linnaeus as a boy of sixteen. A vegetable-marrow 

 grown at Stenbrohult had the male flowers removed as 

 they appeared, with the result that not a single fruit 

 was matured. 



The contrivances which promote fertilisation are then 

 described. Linnaeus seems to regard self-pollination as 

 the rule, though he is aware that pollen may be trans- 

 ferred from a distant plant. He affirms that the 

 anthers and stigma ripen at the same time, and that 

 their relative position is usually such as to facilitate 

 self-pollination. This last notion is taken from Morland 

 and Geoffroy {infra, p. 342). In Campanula the pollen 

 is said to cling to the outside of the hairy style, and 

 to reach the stigma (of the same flower) by " certain 

 channels," which the describer would have been puzzled 

 to demonstrate. Sprengel half a century later became 

 convinced by his own observations that it is a mistake 

 to suppose that all bisexual flowers are self-fertilised ; 

 it would be nearer the truth to say that " nature does 

 intend that any flower should be fertilised by its own 

 pollen." ^ Pollination, when not brought about by the 

 structure of the flower, is, according to Linnaeus, eff'ected 

 either by wind or by insects. He makes the interest- 

 ing remark that mon- and dicBcious plants, especially 

 trees, often flower before leafing, so that pollination is 



1 Entdeckte Geheimnisa der Natur, pp. 4, 43. 



