Views of nature: or Contemplations on the sublime phenomena of creation: with scientific illustrationsHumboldt, Alexander von
Science
Views of nature: or Contemplations on the sublime phenomena of creation: with scientific illustrations
Humboldt, Alexander von
Physical geography; Plant morphology; Science; South America -- Description and travel
through the entire series of analogous modifications.
Footnote 74:
p. 211—“_Winged Insects_.”
The fructification of diœcious plants was at one time principally
ascribed to the agency of the wind. It has been shown by Kölreuter,
and also with much ingenuity by Sprengel, that bees, wasps and
numerous small winged insects, are the main agents in this process. I
use the phrase “main agents”, since I cannot regard it as consonant to
nature that fructification should be impossible without the
intervention of these insects, as Willdenow has also fully shewn.[KA]
On the other hand dichogamy, sap-marks, (_maculæ indicantes_),
coloured spots indicating the presence of honey-vessels, and
fructification by insects, appear to be almost inseparable from one
another.[KB]
The statement often repeated since Spallanzani, that the diœcious
common hemp (_Cannabis sativa_), which was introduced into Europe from
Persia, bears ripe seeds without being in the neighbourhood of
pollen-tubes, has been entirely refuted by more recent investigations.
When seeds have been obtained, anthers in a rudimentary state have
been found near the ovarium, and these may have been capable of
yielding some grains of fructifying pollen. Such hermaphrodism is
frequent in the whole family of _Urticeæ_, but a singular and hitherto
unexplained phenomenon is manifested in the forcing-houses at Kew by a
small New Holland shrub, the Cœlebogyne of Smith. This phanerogamic
plant brings forth seeds in England without exhibiting any trace of
male organs, and without the bastard introduction of the pollen of any
other plant. “A species of Euphorbiaceæ,” (?) writes the distinguished
botanist, Jussieu, “the _Cœlebogyne_, which, although but recently
described, has been cultivated for many years in English
conservatories, has several times borne seeds, which were evidently
perfect, since the well-formed embryos they contained have produced
similar plants. The most careful observations have hitherto failed in
discovering the slightest trace of anthers or even pollen in the
flowers, which are diœcious. No male plants of this kind are known to
exist in England. The embryo cannot therefore have come from the
pollen, which is wholly deficient, but must have been formed entirely
in the ovule.”[KC]
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