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large scale, and capable of dissection, which wei-e lent for use by 

 the courtesy of the Leeds School Board. The lecturer also displayed 

 some diagrams on a very large scale, and exhibited a number of 

 microscopic slides, all of which he had prepared expressly for this lecture. 

 He began by drawing attention to the anatomical form of the stamens 

 and pistil in a typical flower, showing that the stamen was made up of two 

 members — the filament or stalk, and the anther or cap — which two 

 members are attached the one to the other in modes exactly suitable to the 

 circumstances in which they are naturally situated, in the most exquisitely 

 perfect adaptation. The anatomical form of the anther was then described, 

 and the manner in which the anther opens on maturity — either by suture 

 or pore — and discharges the pollen ready for fecundation. In like manner 

 the members of the pistil were pointed out — the stem or style, and summit 

 or stigma — together with the modifications to which each is subject, and 

 the variations of the stigmatic surface according to what is needed in the 

 conditions by which the respective plant is surrounded. The form, the 

 nature, and the object of the pollen was then described, together with the 

 exact mode in which the pollen fertilises the future embryo seated in the 

 ovary, at the same time pointing out the varying positions of the ovule in 

 different species of plants. In this difiicult part of the subject the 

 models, diagrams, and microscopical slides were of great utility, 

 and the conclusion arrived at was that the actual means by which 

 fertilisation is effected must be accepted as one of the most enchanting 

 illustrations of Divine wisdom. The physiology of the orchid was next 

 entered on, and the deeply interesting manner in which fertilisation was 

 brought about in this family of plants was described practically. At this 

 point the lecturer observed that to almost every physical question there is 

 a metaphysical side, and the metaphysical aspect of this question is found 

 in the means by which the effective dispersion of pollen is brought about. 

 Assuming, as a hypothetical premiss, that it is undesirable in nature that 

 self-fertilisation should take place, we then see the raison d'Stre of the 

 numerous contrivances by which self-fertilisation is prevented. In one set 

 of cases the male flowers are found on one plant, and the corresponding 

 female flowers on another (dioecious), and even in those cases where both 

 sexes of flowers are found on the same plant (monoecious) there is still a 

 hindrance in the way of self-fertilisation in the fact that either the male 

 flowers are mature before the female flowers on the same plant, or vice-versa. 

 The most diificult case, however, in which to prevent self-fertilisation, as 

 far as appearances are concerned, must evidently be that in which both 

 male and female organs are situated on the same flower (hermaphrodite) ; 

 but even here self-fertilisation is equally prevented by the arrangement 

 which secures that the male organs shall be ripe first (protandrous), or else 

 the female organs (protogynous), but not mature both together on the same 

 flower. Then, again, on some plants that are hermaphrodite, there are two, 

 and even three different forms of the flower, all calculated to render difiicult 

 direct self- fertilisation. Another interesting feature of the subject was the 



