I removed all of the antheræ out of a flower of _Chelidonium corniculatum_ (scarlet-horned poppy), which was growing in a remote part of the garden, upon the first opening of its petals, and stripped off all the rest of the flowers; another day I treated another flower of the same plant in a similar manner, but sprinkled the pistillum of this with the pollen borrowed from another plant of the same species; the result was, that the first flower produced no fruit, but the second afforded very perfect seed. My design in this experiment was to prove that the mere removal of the antheræ from a flower is not in itself sufficient to render the germen abortive. Having the _Nicotiana fruticosa_ growing in a garden-pot, and producing plenty of flowers and seed, I extracted the antheræ from the newly expanded flowers before they had burst, at the same time cutting away all the other flowers; this germen produced no fruit, nor did it even swell. I removed an urn, in which the _Asphodelus fistulosus_ was growing, to one corner of the garden, and from one of the flowers which had lately opened, I extracted its antheræ; this caused the impregnation to fail. Another day I treated another flower in the same manner; but, bringing a flower from a plant in a different part of the garden, with which I sprinkled the pistillum of the mutilated one, its germen became by that means fruitful. _Ixia chinensis_, flowering in my stove, the windows of which were shut, all its flowers proved abortive. I therefore took one of its antheræ in a pair of pincers, and with them sprinkled the stigmata of two flowers, and the next day one stigma only of a third flower; the seed-buds of these flowers remained, grew to a large size and bore seed, the fruit of the third, however, contained ripe seed only in one of its cells. To relate more experiments would only be to fatigue the reader unnecessarily. All nature proclaims the truth I have endeavored to inculcate, and every flower bears witness to it. Any person may make the experiment for himself with any plant he pleases, only taking care to place the pot in which it is growing, in the window of a room sufficiently out of reach of other flowers; and I will venture to promise him that he will obtain no perfect fruit unless pollen has access to the pistillum. Logan’s experiments on the Mays are perfectly satisfactory, and manifestly show that the pollen does not enter the style, or arrive at the germen, but that it is exhausted by the genital fluid of the pistillum. And as in animals no conception can take place, unless the genital fluid of the female be discharged at the same moment as the impregnating liquor of the male; so in plants, generation fails, unless the stigma be moist with prolific dew. Husbandmen know, by long experience, that if rain falls while rye is in flower, by coagulating the pollen of its antheræ, it occasions the emptiness of many husks in the ear.