in Leipsic. In the course of the nine-days' journey the greater
part of the pollen escaped from the anthers, and Gleditsch
feared that it was spoilt; but he was reassured by the Leipsic
botanist Ludwig, who had had experience in Algiers and Tunis,
and who informed him that the Africans usually employ dry
pollen that has been kept for some time for the purpose of fertilisation. Though the flowering of the female tree was nearly over,
he strewed the loose pollen on its flowers, and tied the withered
inflorescence of the male plant to a late-blowing shoot of the
female. The result was that fruit ripened in the following
winter, and germinated in the spring of 1750. A second
attempt conducted in a similar manner produced an equally favourable result[1].
Koelreuter, who repeats this account in his 'Historic der Versuche,' a record of the experiments made between the years 1691 and 1752 on the sexes of plants, ends his narrative with these words: 'These are, as far as I know, all the attempts which have been made and described since the year 1691 to prove the existence of sexes in plants.' Koelreuter's book was written to show that experiment only can determine the question of sexuality in the vegetable kingdom, and that no one beside Camerarius, Bradley, Logan, Miller, and Gleditsch had pursued this method up to 1752.
While these botanists occupied themselves with the question whether there was a distinction of sexes in the vegetable kingdom, we meet with two writers at the beginning of the 18th century who regard sexuality as proved, and who take up the question of the mode in which the pollen brings about the formation of the embryo. Both were adherents of the theory of
evolution, bad observers, and not familiar with the literature of the subject. The first is Samuel Morland. In the
- ↑ Koelreuter says that he sent pollen of Chamaerops in 1766 to St. Petersburg and to Berlin, where it w; s successfully employed by Eckleben and Gleditsch. He wished to try how long the pollen retains its efficacy.
