i.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 23 



It cannot, indeed, be denied, that in certain 

 dicecous plants, those, I mean, in which the sexes 

 are on different trees, the ancients were aware of 

 this great truth. 



Aristotle* states, that if we shake the dust of 

 the male palm over the female, her fruits will 

 quickly ripen ; and moreover, that when the wind 

 sheds this dust upon the female, her fruits hecome 

 developed just in the same manner as if a branch 

 of the male had been suspended over her. 



Theophrastus also, treating on the same subject, 

 says, "They bring the male to the female palm, 

 in order to make her produce fruits, proceeding 

 in the following manner. When the male is in 

 flower, they select a branch abounding in that 

 downy dust which resides in the flower, and shake 

 it over the fruit of the female. This operation 

 prevents the fruit from becoming abortive, and 

 brings it soon to perfect maturity." 



After quoting these two passages from the two 

 most accurate naturalists of ancient days, I shall 

 not insist upon the more vague statements of Hero- 

 dotus, who, in alluding to the Date-palm, informs 

 us, that the necessity of bringing the male into 

 the proximity of the female blossoms was known 

 to the Babylonians, seeing that this writer com- 

 pares the practice to what is called the caprification 

 of the Fig. 



Now the latter operation consisted in bringing 

 from the forest the branches of the wild fig-trees 



' De Plantis. 



