The Linnaean Era j 363363 363
been the first to test the sexual theory in hermaphroditic flowers. His choice of tulips
was felicitous because of their large, accessible stamens and pistils. Although the Dutch
speculative craze known as “Tulipomania” had ended by 1639, tulips remained a ubiq-
uitous favorite in gardens throughout Europe. Bradley had visited Amsterdam to study
horticulture in 1714, but Dutch botanists had apparently not yet performed any “cas-
tration” experiments on tulip flowers. Bradley describes his own tulip experiment as
follows:I made my first Experiment upon the Tulip, which I chose rather than any other
Plant, because it seldom misses to produce Seed. Several Years ago I had the conve-
nience of a large Garden, wherein there was a considerable Bed of Tulips in one Part,
containing about four hundred Roots: In another Part of it, very remote from the
former, were twelve Tulips in perfect health. At the first Opening of the twelve ...
I cautiously took out of them all their Apices [anthers], before the Farina Fecundans
was ripe, or any ways appear’d: These Tulips being thus castrated, bore no Seed that
Summer: while, on the other hand, every one of the four hundred Plants, which I had
let alone, produced Seed. ^34Bradley’s pioneering demonstration of the role of pollen in a hermaphroditic flower was
published in 1717, the same year as Vailliant’s lecture at the Jardin du Roi.
The Scottish gardener Philip Miller was appointed head gardener of the Chelsea Physic
Garden in 1722, where he remained until his retirement in 1767. In addition to greatly
expanding the garden’s collection, he was an active experimentalist who corresponded
regularly with Bradley, Blair, and other scientific figures. In 1730, he was elected to the
Royal Society. Miller was probably best known to his contemporaries as the author of
The Gardener’s Dictionary, first published in 1724. The Dictionary, which won high praise
from Linnaeaus, went through eight editions and was translated into French, German,
and Dutch.
Shortly before assuming his post at the Chelsea Physic Garden, Miller, inspired by
Bradley’s account of his tulip experiments, wrote a letter to the author describing his own
castration experiments along with the first known report of bee pollination:I planted a Dozen of Tulips by themselves, and soon as they open’d, took out the
Apices with a fine Pair of Nippers. ... About two Days after, as I was sitting in my
Garden, I perceiv’d, in a Bed of Tulips near me, some Bees very busy in the Middle
of the Flowers; and viewing them I saw them come out with their Legs and Belly
loaded with Dust, and one of them flew into a Tulip that I had castrated: Upon
which I took my Microscope, and examining the Tulip he flew into, found he had
left Dust enough to impregnate the Tulip ... [for they bore good ripe seeds which
a fter wards g rew].^35Aristotle had also observed bees collecting “bee bread” from flowers, but he failed to
associate bees with any benefit to the plant. Here, Philip Miller, for the first time, connects
the dots between bee visits and pollination— no doubt a spine- tingling revelation for the
Chelsea gardener!