Camerarius, a professor of botany, is best known for the observations and experiments that led him to describe sexuality in plants. Other scientists, including Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712) and John Ray (1628-1705), had speculated about the issue of sexuality in plants before Camerarius wrote De sexu plantarum. Indeed, Grew suggested that the flowers contained the sexual organs of the plant. He thought that the pistil was the female part, but he was unsure about the role of the stamens. He did, however, call attention to the fact that in some species of plants the pistil and stamens were present in the same flower while in other species these entities were found in separate flowers. Twelve years after Grew published Anatomy of Plantse Camerarius described anatomical and experimental studies that supported his own theory of plant sexuality.

Camerarius was born in Tubingen, Germany, where his father was a professor of...