338 LINN.EUS AND THE JUSSIEUS 



yellow-tipped stamens of the rose, and lias a special 

 name (apices) for the anthers. The case of the date- 

 palm was now better understood than it had been in 

 the time of Theophrastus. Pliny says that the most 

 attentive observers were of opinion that all trees and 

 herbs were sexual. This does not, however, prevent 

 him from saying that many were flowerless, while some 

 bore no fruit. 



The revivers of botany in the sixteenth century were 

 too much occupied with the identification and descrip- 

 tion of medicinal plants to study plant-physiology. 

 Not even in the seventeenth century did it occur to 

 Malpighi, familiar as he was with physiological experi- 

 ment, that an experimental test of his explanation of 

 the function of stamens was required, or that it might 

 be possible to find out whether native dioecious plants, 

 many of which he knew, ripened their fruit and seeds 

 when the males were excluded. It was probably by mere 

 reflection upon the presence of minute grains in the 

 anther, their liberation by bursting of the capsule, and 

 their adhesion to the stigma, that Millington and Grew^ 

 were able to throw out the conjecture that the anther is 

 the male organ. Ray^ reinforced their argument by 

 citing once more the classical instance of the date-palm, 

 confirmed by the recent testimony of Prosper Alpinus 

 (1592), who had seen for himself that the date does 

 not ripen its fruit without pollination. In the desert, 

 says Ray, where artificial fertilisation cannot take place, 

 the wind may possibly answer the same purpose. He 

 pointed out that the parts which Grew had called the 

 male organs are sometimes borne on separate plants, 

 and mentioned common examples, though he failed to 



^Supra, p. 171. 



' Hist. Plmtiarum, Vol. I, cap. x. 



