THE GYN/ECOCENTRIC THEORY. I 85 



sexual) tissues for food. So it comes about that, in plants, the 

 care for offspring is, finally, largely transferred from the female 

 gametophyte to the dioecious or to the monoecious asexual (sporo- 

 phytic) plant. And with this transfer of labor, the difference in 

 degree of development in the two sexes in our highest plants 

 seems to be disappearing. Thus, with the progress of plant evo- 

 lution, sexes have been first differentiated ; then the female sex 

 has become better developed ; and finally the tendency among 

 highest plants is toward equality of the sexes, as Mr. Ward thinks 

 is also the case in higher animals. But in plants equality is ap- 

 proached through reduction, the female remaining plainly the 

 dominant sex, at least until the sexes are reduced, as in Angio- 

 sperms, to little more than reproductive cells. 



There are many interesting facts which cannot be considered in 

 the present brief survey, but it is hoped that enough has been 

 stated to illustrate the relation of the sexes in plants and to show 

 that, in the main, the facts are still in favor of Mr. Ward's gyn^e- 

 corentric theory. 



A renewed eft'ort is to be made this year for the creation of a 

 great national park in the southern Appalachian Mountains 

 extending through the western portions of Virginia, North Caro- 

 lina, Georgia, and parts of the mountainous districts of Kentucky, 

 Tennessee and Alabama. Coupled with this proposition will be 

 another for the creation of a very much smaller national forest 

 reservation in the White Mountain region of New Hampshire, 

 the destruction of which is eminent unless some action is taken 

 by the national government. Floral Life, August, 1906. 



