(c. 15, 3) he says, that terebinths are some male and some
female, and that the former are barren and are therefore
called male. That Theophrastus in all these matters trusted
to the relations of others is shown by a passage in the same
book (c. 18, i), where he says, 'What men say, that the fruit
of the female date-palm does not perfect itself unless the
blossom of the male with its dust is shaken over it, is indeed
wonderful, but resembles the caprification of the fig, and it
might almost be concluded that the female plant is not by
itself sufficient for the perfecting of the foetus; but this cannot
be the case in one genus or two, but either in all or in many.'
We observe the grand style in which the Greek philosopher
dismisses this important question, and how far he is from condescending to make an observation for himself.
It appears that in Pliny's time the hypothesis of a sexual difference in plants had grown up and become confirmed in the minds if not of writers, yet of those who occupied them- selves with nature; Pliny in his 'Historia Mundi,' describing the relation between the male and female date-palm, calls the pollen-dust the material of fertilisation, and says that naturalists tell us that all trees and even herbs have the two sexes[1].
If this theme supplied little material for reflection to philosophers, it did not fail to excite the fancy of the poets. De Candolle cites the verses of Ovid and Claudian on the subject, and passing over the intervening centuries for a very sufficient reason notices the lively poetic description of two date-palms in Brindisi and Otranto by Jovianus Pontanus in 1505. But nothing was gained in this way for natural science.
Treviranus in his 'Physiologic der Gewachse 1 ' (1838), II. p. 371, has well described the state of knowledge on this subject
- ↑ The passage is quoted in full in De Candolle's 'Physiologic végétale,’ 1 1835, ii. p. 44. It is said there of the pollen, 'Ipso et pulvere etiam feminas maritare.’
