Enquiry into Plants

Palms and Figs. It is my pleasure to append here the method of fertilizing female palms with male pollen. "It is done in this way: when the male [palm] blooms, they cut off the spathe from which the flower comes, and immediately, just as it is, they SHAKE the fluff, the flower (perhaps one should read tou antheos^d), and the dust over the fruit of the female; and if it undergoes this, it preserves [the fruit] and does not cast it off." lib. ii. ch. 9, at the end.

Very recently, a small work came into my hands, the title of which is "An Essay on the History of Plants of Theophrastus, by J. J. P. Moldenhawer, Hamburg, 1791. The occasion for this author’s booklet, as he himself says, was provided by a copy of the first Aldine edition of Theophrastus's History of Plants and On the Causes of Plants, augmented with various readings, in the Royal Library of Copenhagen, together with the manuscripts of Albert Fabricius. Namely, while he was occupied in editing both works, illustrated with a commentary and critical notes, having been struck by the supreme insight of Theophrastus, and perceiving that he saw more than is commonly thought, he hands this Essay to those skilled in the subject as a specimen of this undertaking, so that, supported by their judgment, he might moderate the plan of the work." Only the chapters of the first four books On Plants are sent to the press there; with added emendations of the text, investigations

^d See the word Chnous, Lex. Theophr.