oration published by Boerhaave, shewed that he knew this thing accurately, although he has 

 not demonstrated it by actual experiments. 



From that period, that is from the year 1718, many have attempted to raise up this rock, 

 especially the author of the Sexual System, who had supposed that the thing itself was clear, 

 and already established from his various labours, although Ponteder a* has indeed attempted to 

 refute it. 





stick I gently touched the inside of one of the filaments, which instantly sprung from the petal with considerable force, striking its anthera 

 against the stigma. I repeated the experiment a great number of times ; in each flower touching one filament atter another, t.U the anthers 01 

 all six were brought together in the center over the stigma. . 



" I took home with me three branches laden with flowers, and placed them in ajar of water, and in the evening tried the experiment on 

 some of these flowers, then standing in my room, with the same success. 



" In order to discover in what particular part of the filaments this irritability resided, I cut oft" one of the petals with a very fine pair ot 

 scissars, so carefully as not to touch the stamen which stood next it : then, with an extremely slender piece of quill I touched the outside ot 

 the filament which had been next the petal, stroking it from top to bottom ; but it remained perfectly immoveable. With the same instru- 

 ment I then touched the back of the anthera, then its top, its edges, and at last its inside; still without any effect. But the quill being 

 carried from the anthera down the inside of the filament, it no sooner touched that part than the stamen sprung forwards with great v-gour 

 to the stigma. This was often repeated with a blunt needle, a fine bristle, a feather, and several other things, which could not possibly in- 

 jure the structure of the part, and always with the same effect. 



« To some of the anther* I applied a pair of scissars, so as to bend their respective filaments with sufficient force to make them touch the 

 stigma- but this did not produce the proper contraction of the filament. The incurvation remained only so long as the instrument was ap- 

 plied: on its being removed, the stamen returned to the petal by its natural elasticity. But on the scissars being applied to the irritable part, 

 the anthera immediately flew to the stigma, and remained there. A very sudden and smart shock given to any part of a stamen would, 

 however, sometimes have the same effect as touching the irritable part. 



" Hence it is evident, that the motion above described was owing to an high degree of irritability in the side of each filament, next the ger- 

 men, by which, when touched, it contracts, that side becomes shorter than the other, and consequently the filament is bent towards the 

 eermen. I could not discover any thing particular in the structure of that or any other part of the filament. 



« This irritabilitv is perceptible in stamina of all ages, and not merely in those which are just about d.schargmg their pollen In some 

 flowers, which were only so far expanded that they would barely admit a bristle, and whose anther* were not near bursting, the . filamen s 

 appeared almost as irritable as in flowers fully opened; and in several old flowers, some of whose petals * llh .^..'^Tff^yl 

 them were falling off, the remaining filaments, and even those which were already fallen to the ground, proved full as irritable as any I 



tod ™Zl m e flowers I carefully removed the gcrme,., without touching the filaments, and then applied a bristle to one of them, which 

 immediately contracted, and the stigma being out of its way, it was bent quite over to the opposite side ot the flower. 



« Observing the stamina in some flowers which had been irritated returning to their original situations in the hollows of the petals, found 



the same thing happened to all of them sooner or later. I then touched some filaments which had perfectly resumed their former stations, 



ndZ d the S m contract with as much facility as before. This was repeated three or four times on the same filament. I *^»*"g 



late, in the midst of their progress, some which were returning, but not always with success; a few ot them only were shghtly affected by 



thE -The' purpose which this curious contrivance of Nature answers in the private economy of the plant seems not hard to ^ dj-overed 

 When the stamina stand in their original position, their anther* are effectually sheltered from ram by the concavity of ltap*M» 

 probably hey remain till some in.ee? coming to extract honey from the base of the flower thrusts ''-It between theirj lam t 

 and almost unavoidably touches them in the most irritable part: and thus the impregnat.on of the germen is performed . and a .U ^is 

 chlfly in fine sunny weather that insects are on the wing, the pollen is also in such weather most fit for the purpose of unpregna- 



ti0 "« The Barberry is not the onlv plant which exhibits this phenomenon. The stamina of Cactus Tuna a kind of Indian Pig, _arc ^like- 

 wise vlry i^tahle^ These stamina I long and slender, standing in great numbers round the inside of the flower If a qufl. o ea her h 

 drawn through them, they begin in the space of two or three seconds to lie down gently on one s.de, and in a short time they are 

 bent at the bottom of the flower." 



* Pontidera was professor of Botany at Pisa, and published, in , 7 7». his •< Anthologia, sive De Boris ^' ^TZlZ^of 

 Nature of Flowers." In his preface he expresses that his chief design in this publication was to repress the prevaAng beUrf rtjte Sexes o 

 Plants « Quin etiam cum multos videam pneclare indolis juvenes turn veterum, turn recentiorum pot.ss.mum trad.t lon.bus ita alhc, per 

 Sen impel et infirmiora ingenia in iis ipsis rei Botanic* principiis decipi possint, succurrendum esse, et tot.s vinbu S P— -^ 

 malum diducatur, judicavi. Quod sane et illis, quas in horto anno superiore habui, dissertat.ombus ex parte pr*sfti, audito es "»"»»»» 

 Tonendo u Villi, opinionibus, qu* ingenii specie b.andiuntur, caverent. Perfaci.e siquidem juvenilis ^-'^Z^ius Le" d 

 alliciunt/capitur, quibus semel imbuta per omne vit* tempus s*pe„umero eas servat. Et revera non video ^^^^T^ 

 beamus, quam cum homines auctoritate eximia, ut animos rerum imperitos ad se convertant, et all.c.ant ,ta loquuntur . <"*£*^ n ™ 

 Lfoeminas, in androgynas distribute ; partesque illas, quas in deliciis habemus, floresque vocamus, nihil ahud esse ' "3"^^' ^f"" 

 dafin plantis, ut Plmli verbis utar, Veneris intellect, maresaue afflatu auoiam. et pulvere ^"^^^^^J^Z, 

 h*c se ab aliis non accepisse, sed vidisse profitentur, qui conjugii tempora tradunt, qui rat.onem, qp* frigid* in Venerem stirpes so .at 

 Jocen , et amsi iis non omnino assentiatur, tamen non legendos ediscendosque judicabit i Quo exemp.o a... incitati il.is sese n^cknU Q» 

 eveS "I vel hujusmodi opinionibus sese obnoxios tradant, illisque perpetuo adh*reant, de quibus jam actum esse ™P» ^"^ >> ™ 

 ut vana's et commenticias rejiciant, atque una totam rem Botanica in contemptu habeant. His itaque de causis maturandum esse cognov,. 

 Quapropter libellum anno proxime elapso de hujusmodi rebus consenptum. 



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