SIXTH EXPERIMENT. 



The Datisca cannabina {Smooth-stalked Bastard Hemp) was raised from seed about ten 

 years ago in my garden. 



It abounded in flowers, but these being females, therefore proved abortive. 

 In order to obtain a male plant I procured some seeds from Paris. 



These also grew well, but what vexed me was, they all proved females, and, therefore, 

 produced me also flowers without fruit. 



At length, in the year 1757, I procured other seeds. 

 Out of these some plants were males, and in the year 1758 flowered. 



These I removed into a border very remote from the females. 

 Therefore, when the male flowers were mature for shedding their Farina, I held a * paper 

 under them, and gently agitated the loose spike of flowers with my finger, until the whole surface 

 was nearly covered with yellow Farina. 



I carried this to the female flowers, which were produced in another part of the garden, and 

 sprinkled it over them. 



The result was, these female flowers alone ripened their fruits where I had dispersed the 

 Farina, and their seeds attained their due magnitude; but in all the rest, being fertilized by no 

 Farina, there appeared not a vestige of any seeds.f 



SEVENTH EXPERIMENT. 



The Pholnix Dactylifera (Date-bearing Palm) a long time flowered at Berlin, but pro 

 duced no fruit. 



pro- 



* Koelreuter, a famous experimental botanist, sent, from Karlsruhe to Gleditsh, the farina o{ the mnU «..„„ 

 by post with which, bymeansof acamelVhairbrush, he impregnated a female plants his ^ £, forth l^^ZZ^Z 

 seeds, from which he raised young plants. ' outainea n P e 



are 



barret S ° metimeS ' h ° Wever ' Under such circumstances, the seeds arrive at their due magnitude, but, as was long since observed, 



, P v " f '; J T b B ° ba n' °T7 °f ^ T ySiC Garde " ^ ° Xf ° rd ' ab ° Ut thirt y- ei S ht y™° «*°. which was before the doctrine of the different 

 exes of plants was well understood, herborising in the country, observed a plant of the Lychnis Sylvestris simplex, whose flower! hou £ h 

 they had stam.na, yet there were no apices; and finding this not in one, but in all the flowers upon the same nlant hU m Zl n ■ 



might be a new species, and therefore he marked the plant, and took care to have it preserved tin the LedTwe e 1! 2 t- M '7" 

 cured them full hard and firm, and.to outward appearance Remplis des germe (as Mr. Geoffrey has t H^lT™ to sow tS T 

 garden next season in a proper place, but there was never a plant which sprung up. * S ° W them m hlS 



I had this account from the celebrated Dr. Sherard, at whose desire I have inserted it, and both of them bein<r „ w „„« „f u 

 and so good credit, I may venture to say it sets the opinion of the different sexes of plants upon another fcolg 2 t TZi e d t nl S 

 our modern authors; for h« imports that it is not the nourishment of the gross substance of the seed itself, which is hereby meant Tr he 

 increase ot the seed-vessel, which is thereby designed, for, as is observed, a hen ca» lay an egg without previous congress wSe '„c k 

 this shall be the same for colour, taste, (when new-laid) smell, bigness, with another egg which has the tread fas thev coil 7^ ,w 



has been fecundated by the Materies Seminalis Masculina ; but the difference appears when both are put under the hen to £ L £ 1 

 one shall pullulate or chit, and the other shall become fetid and rot. P t0 be hatched ' the 



The Ltchnis Dioica (Wild Red Lychnis) being made by me the subject of experiment, gave additional confirmation „f »h. <s 

 of Plants." Vide Blair on the Generation of Plants, in his Botanical Essays. additional confirmation of the Sexes 



The learned Dr Hope, late professor of botany in the university of Edinburgh, a strenuous advocate for the sexes of plants, made the 

 following experiment. He found of this Lychnis dioica two kinds, the white and the red ; and he was convinced (as are since this time Pro! 

 fessorMartyn and Mr. Curtis) that these are not varieties, but distinct species, and that the white never produces naturally red flowerT He 

 placed under the same bell the red and the white Lychnis Dioica, the one a male and the other a female nlant anH th, till , ■ ! i • 



Some 





