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258 animalculism was, however, limited to the vegetable kingdom. He did not aspire to extend it to the other kingdom. To explain the contradiction which thus appeared between the fecundation of animals and that of plants, he regarded the vegetable ovule as a male organ, and the grain of pollen, producer of the embryo, as a female organ. The announcement of this discovery came like a clap of thunder. It soon had enthusiastic partisans and angry critics. The critics were in the right, the partisans were at fault; but what does it matter now? Schleiden had again given a powerful impulse to the spirit of investigation, and that is the essential thing. His memoir, otherwise, is far from containing anything good or exact."

"Schleiden had disciples who were eager to adopt the doctrine of their master and promulgate it. At the same time, however, Mirbel and Brongniart skillfully guarded their opinions, and Meyen attempted a formal refutation of the new theory. A general and hot contest arose and lasted for more than twenty years, in which all the distinguished botanists of every country became engaged. Amici in 1842 confirmed and extended the previous observations of Mirbel, Spach, and Brongniart. He asserted that he had seen the embryo produced at the expense of a part of the embryonary sac, and this seemed to settle the question against Schleiden. Schleiden, however, hastened quickly to refute Amici's assertion. The great Modenese naturalist returned to the charge with his observations on the orchids. In 1850 the Academy of Amsterdam crowned a work of Schacht, a disciple of Schleiden's, who vigorously defended his master's theory. Tulasne, Hugo Mohl, Brongniart, Ch. Midler, and Hofmeister came forward to oppose it. It gave way and seemed to be dead; then it rose again and renewed the contest. On the 19th of December, 1854, Schacht triumphantly announced to the congress of naturalists, at Berlin, that a young man, Th. Deecke, a partisan, like himself, of Schleiden's doctrine, but more fortunate than he, had succeeded in making a microscopic preparation of Pedicularis sylvatica which was of such a nature as to reduce for ever to silence the adversaries of that theory. This preparation had a great repute. The story was passed around from city to city, but, while Schacht pretended that it was unanswerable, Hugo Mohl declared that he saw nothing conclusive in it. This was the last flickering of the theory of Schleiden. Radekofer published numerous observations against it in 1856, and announced at the same time that Schleiden had himself abandoned the theory which he had put forward. Shortly afterward, Schacht also acknowledged that he had been in error, and the theory, left dead on the battle-field, was buried for good."

With the vitality which Schleiden and his contemporaries had infused into botany a new era was inaugurated for the science. To mark its coming and extend the comprehension of the principles and aspirations. of the new school, were needed a compendious and