62 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



hermaphrodite flower, or the stamen hearing 

 flowers of a monoecious plant are cut off before 

 they shed their pollen, and care taken to pre- 

 vent the access of the pollen of any other plant 

 of the same species, the fruit will prove abor- 

 tive. From a flower of the red horned poppy 

 (chelii'lomim cortiiculatum) which was detached 

 from nil other individuals of the same species, 

 Linnseus removed all the anthers upon the first 

 opening of the blossom, and stripped, off at the 

 same time all the rest of the flowers ; hut the 

 result of this experiment was that the flower 

 produced no seed. A gardener who cultivated 

 melons and cucumbers, but who was no botanist, 

 thinking that the stameniferous flowers of the 

 plant exhausted the nourishment due to the 

 other flowers, without being of any utility in 

 themselves, fancied that his plants would be 

 rendered more vigorous, his fruit of superior 

 flavour, and his profits consequently increased, 

 by means of tearing them off altogether. But 

 like the boy who cut open his goose that laid 

 golden eggs, in the hope of getting rich all at 

 once, he soon found cause to repent of his rash 

 experiment, for the consequence was that his 

 plants produced no ft-uit. If, after the anthers 

 have been removed, the pollen of another plant 

 of the same species be shaken over the pistil, 

 then the fruit will ripen as usual. Linnaeus 

 proved this by first treating a flower of the 

 cMIidomim corniadatum, as in the foregoing ex- 

 periment, and then sprinkling over the pistil 

 pollen brought from another plant of the same 

 species; when the flower produced perfect seeds. 

 Upon this principle, gardeners now assist the 

 impregnation, or what they call the setting of 

 the fruit, at least in the case of their melons and 

 cucumbers, by means of sprinkling the poUen 

 of the male flowers over the pistils of the females. 

 But if a plant has more than one pistil, and you 

 apply the pollen only to that one, then that 

 one only will ripen seed. 



If the stigma of the pistil is cut off before the 

 discharge of the pollen, no fecundation ensues, 

 and the fniit is inferior both in quantity and 

 quality. If, again, the stigma of a flower that 

 has been stripped of its stamens before the burst- 

 ing of the anthers is sprinkled with the poUen 

 of a plant of a different species, then the seeds 

 will not only ripen and produce perfect plants 

 when sown, but these plants will partake of the 

 qualities both of the fecundating and fecundated 

 species. The pollen of the trar/opogon pratensis, 

 whose petals are yellow, when sprinkled on the 

 stigmas of the flower of the tragopogon pzirpiireus, 

 whose petals are puqile, yielded seeds that pro- 

 duced plants with both purple and yellow 

 flowers. Hence botanists account for the exist- 

 ence of what are called spurious plants, attribut- 

 ing them to the accidental mixture or access of 

 the pollen of a different species. Thus, vercr.ua 



spuria is thought to have sprung from icronica 

 maritima, impregnated by the poUen of verbena 

 officinalis, agreeing in its fructification with the 

 former, and in its leaves with the latter. So 

 also delphhohim liylridum is thought to have 

 sprung from delphinium datum and aconitum 

 napellus, by its combining together the features 

 of both. But this spurious impregnation seems 

 to be confined within very naiTOW limits, and 

 takes place only among plants that are nearly 

 related by natural affinity. 



If a male plant is placed iu the neighbour- 

 hood of a female plant which from its having 

 been formerly insulated, had produced no per- 

 fect seed, or if the poUen of a male plant of the 

 same species is conveyed to it from a distance, 

 and sprinkled over the stigma, it will npw pro- 

 duce perfect seed. A plant of the datisca canna- 

 hiua, which came up in the garden of Linnjeus, 

 from seed about the year 1750, and which pro- 

 duced afterwards many flowers, yielded, however, 

 no perfect seed, as the flowers happened to be 

 all females. At last, however, in 1757, a parcel 

 of seed was procured, from which a few male 

 plants wore obtained, that flowered in the follow- 

 ing year. They were removed to a distance from 

 the females, and when their flowers were ready 

 to discharge the pollen, it was collected by 

 means of shaking the panicle with the finger 

 over a piece of paper, till it was covered with a 

 fine yellow powder. The pollen thus obtained, 

 was immediately carried to the female plants, 

 which were growing in another part of the 

 garden, and sprinkled over them, in consequence 

 of which they now produced perfect seeds. But 

 the best example of this kind yet exliibited, is 

 that of the famous experiment of Linnaeus upon 

 the Berlin and Leipsic palms. About the period 

 of the foregoing experiment, or rather a few 

 years prior to it, there gxew at Berlin an indi- 

 vidual female palm tree which had never per- 

 fected any fi-uit, so as that no seeds would 

 germinate, while there grew at the same time, 

 at Leipsic, a male plant of the same species. 

 Hence it occurred to LinuiEus, that the impreg- 

 nation of the female flowers of the former was 

 still practicable, even by means of the pollen 

 that might be procured, and carried from the 

 mal." flowers of the latter. Accordingly, a 

 flowering branch of the male plant «as dispatched 

 by post from Leipsic to Berlin, a distance of 

 twenty German miles, and shook or suspended 

 over the flowers of the female plant. The con- 

 sequence was, that the fruit was ripened, and the 

 embryo perfected, and young plants raised fi-om 

 the seeds. Again, if the male plant be removed 

 from the vicinity of the female plant to which 

 it had given fecundity, the fruit of the female 

 plant is again produced imperfect as before. 

 About the year 1765, there gTew in the garden 

 of M. de la Scrro, at Paris, a female jiistachio 



