GEOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY. 483 



the recent observations of Naudin in Paris, which, by confirming it still more, have 

 at last vindicated for it the character of an accurate and strictly correct observation. 

 Nor is it to be wondered at, that a fact, opposed to so many theories looked upon 

 as true laws of nature, should have been received with the greatest distrust, and 

 been, ex-cathedra, absolutely denied. That subjective deception should somewhere 

 have taken place was a thought that readily suggested itself, as a plausible excuse 

 for disbelieving so astounding a fact. How easy for polygamous flowers to be 

 hidden among the female ones ! (as Mr. Masters has shown them to exist occasion- 

 ally in the dioicious hop plant.) How easy for pollen to be wafted to the 

 stigmas ! These and others were the objections of the unbelievers in the new dis- 

 covery. To this must be added that the experiments of Koelreuter on hybrids, 

 placed the sexuality of plants on a firmer footing than it formerly enjoyed, and 

 that the concession that a dioicious plant could, under certain circumstances, 

 develope its ovula without the aid of pollen, was looked upon as an absolute nega- 

 tion of sexuality. 



The polemic on this subject was continued for many a year, but for the want of 

 new observations began also to slacken, when on the 18th June, 1839, Mr. John. 

 Smith, Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, announced before the 

 Linnean Society of London that there existed in the Royal Gardens a female 

 specimen of a Euphorbiaceous plant, Cselebogyne ilieifolia, from New Hol- 

 land, which annually produced ripe seeds without the aid of pollen. Robert 

 Brown Lindley, the two Hookers, myself and others, subjected the Caalebogyne to 

 strict and repeated examinations, but the result invariably was a confirmation of 

 the case as stated by Smith. The Parthenogenesis of this plant was therefore gen- 

 erally accepted by the public of England ; but on the Continent of Europe it was 

 rejected, — as the observations of Treseinus on Datisca cannabina, of Lecogon 

 Spinacia oleracea of Tenore, on Pistacia narbonensis, (confirmed by Bocconi on 

 this and other species of Pistacia,) and of Ramisch on Mercurialis annua had already 

 been. All these observations were regarded as mere delusions, of which science 

 ought to be purged as speedily and completely as possibly ; a fact which can take 

 us the less by surprise when we reflect that the doctrine so ably and long main- 

 tained by the Horkelian school that the pollen contains the true origin of the 

 embryo and that the ovulum is merely matrix — has only very recently become 

 untenable through the experiments and observations of Hofmeister, Radlkofer 

 and others. 



It had been mentioned by Wenderoth and others that the monoecious Ricinus 

 communis, the Castor Oil plant, produced ripe seed without the aid of pollen ; but 

 the direct observations of Naudin show that such is not the case, and that so far 

 from exhibiting any tendency towards Parthenogenesis, all the female flowers fell 

 off the moment the male ones were removed ; a similar effect was produced on 

 Esbalium elaterium, another monoecious plant, all the female flowers of which 

 faded after the male ones of the same specimen were taken off: observations 

 which justify us in considering as doubtful the existence of a Parthenogensis in 

 monoecious plants, but which have established it in nine dioicious ones belonging 

 to seven different natural orders. 



The existence of a Parthenogenesis in animals and plants throws more light upon 

 the history of the embryo than the most able and valued physiological researches 

 could possibly do. It shows more clearly than the most lucid explanation, that the 

 origin of the embryo has not to be looked for in the pollen of plants, or the semen 



