GEOFFROY, CLAUDE-JOSEPH. - FIRST DELINEATION OF POLLEN GRAINS.

Observations sur la structure & l'usage des principales parties des Fleurs.

(Paris, L'Imprimerie Royale, 1714). 4to. Without wrappers. Extracted from "Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences. Année 1711". Pp. 210-234 and 1 engraved plate. Clean and fine.

First edition. In this paper Geoffroy supported the views of Grew and others as to the sexes of plants and he here produced the first illustrations of pollen grains in the literature (the engraved plate). He states that the germ is never to be seen in the seed till the apices (anthers) shed their dust; and that if the stamina be cut out before the apices open, the seed will either not ripen, or be barren if it ripens. He mentions two experiments made by him to prove this one by cut ting off the staminal flowers in Maize, and the other by rearing the female plant of Mercurialis apart from the male. In these instances most of the flowers were abortive, but a few were fertile, which he attributes to the dust of the apices having been wafted by the wind from other plants.

Order-nr.: 53260