ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF FECUNDATING FLOWERS. 409 
ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF FECUNDATING FLOWERS, AS A MEANS 
OF RENDERING THEM FRUITFUL. 
Carrying branches of the male plants to the females of the class 
JDioecict, is an expedient practised by the ancient inhabitants of the 
warmer parts of Asia and Africa: so history informs us ; and the 
effects and propriety of such manipulation has been repeatedly proved 
in modern practice. 
Some of the palms, particularly the date-bearing (Phoenix dactyli- 
fera), was one plant, which, in countries where the trees were indigenous, 
constantly received this attention of having the male flowers suspended 
over the females in the season of flowering. The common fig (Ficus 
carica ) also received this attention, and long before anything certain 
was known relative to the sexuality of plants. 
In progress of time, however, the effects, so plainly visible and 
exemplified in the trees above named, led to further ideas on the sub¬ 
ject ; and it was reserved for the immortal Linnaeus to prove incon- 
testibly the doctrine of vegetable sexuality, and on which he founded 
his system of botany. The peculiar functions of the stamens and 
pistils being now confirmed, and seeing that the junction of the pollen 
of the anther with the glutinous summit of the pistil took place from 
their proximity to each other, or by the instrumentality of bees, or of 
the passing wind, it soon occurred to practical men that manual assist¬ 
ance might be as effectual, in many cases, as the accidental circum¬ 
stances to which allusion has just been made. 
Perhaps the first act of the kind was the old custom of manually 
impregnating the female flowers of the melon and cucumber; and in 
this case it appeared to be absolutely necessary, because these plants 
being shut up in glazed frames, where neither bees nor wind had 
access, the fruit might often miscarry, if not assisted by the manager’s 
hand. 
A digression may be allowed here merely to remark, that it might 
be worth while to institute an inquiry whether the plants forming the 
three classes, Moncecia, Dioscia, and Polygamia, be or be not more 
melliferous or odoriferous than others. Should this be found to obtain 
in any appreciable degree, it would be another admirable adaptation of 
nature to attain her ends through the agency of winged insects, which, 
while seeking food, are effecting another important purpose of which 
they are necessarily unconscious. 
One step leads to another, and soon it occurred to vegetable physiolo¬ 
gists that, as the pollen was so easily transferable from one flower to 
another, other effects might be produced by means of cross impregna- 
VOL. IY r .—NO. LIII. Y Y 
