flower with those of Tournefort, who was a decided opponent
of the doctrine of sexuality in plants. The parts of the
flower are hastily described, figures are given of some forms
of pollen-grains, and the notion that the style is a tube receives some apparent confirmation from the experiment of
drawing water through the style of a lily. The view that the
pollen is not an excrement, as Tournefort and Malpighi had
maintained, is defended partly by arguments which prove
nothing, for instance, by the erroneous assertion that the
anthers are always so disposed that the extremity of the pistil
must necessarily receive their dust. The only proof offered
for the fact that seeds are infertile if deprived of the cooperation of the pollen, is a very hasty account of some experiments with maize and Mercurialis. The result of these
experiments, as well as some other remarks of Geoffrey, remind us of the text of Camerarius' letter to an extent which
mere accident will hardly account for. If Geoffroy really
made these experiments, which is open to some doubt, yet
they were made fifteen years later than those of Camerarius,
who did make the same experiments among others and has
described them better. Geoffroy next endeavours to show
how the pollen effects the fertilisation, and offers two views on
the subject; first, that the dust contains much sulphur and is
decomposed on the pistil, the more subtle parts forcing their
way into the ovary, where they set up a fermentation and
cause the formation of the embryo ; the second view is, that
the pollen-grains already contain the embryos, which find their
way into the seeds and are there hatched. This is Morland's notion, who however is not mentioned. Geoffroy considers
the latter to be the more probable hypothesis, chiefly because
no embryo is found in the ovule before fertilisation, and also
because the seed of the bean has an orifice (the micropyle); it does not occur to him that these facts speak as much for the first as for the second view.
Enough has been produced to show that Morland and
