938 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
fertilising of the vegetable kingdom, but the ravages with the 
foliage caused by some classes of insects far more than counter- 
balance the good that they may do. 
Pollen is the fertilising and vitalising agent in reproducing and 
perpetuating all classes of vegetables. It is produced in abun- 
dance by all flowering plants, both by those of conspicuous and 
also those of inconspicuous flowers or blossoms. As a rule incon- 
spicuous flowers are anemophilous, and those of more gaudy tints 
are sought after by insects. It may not be universally understood 
that there are male and female elements in the vegetable organ- 
isms just as in the animal organism. We know that if the sexes 
in the latter are always excluded, the one from the other, repro- 
duction is an utter impossibility. 
We have control over the sexual intercourse of the domesticated 
animals. Cattle breeders, sheep farmers, agriculturists, orchardists, 
horticulturists, and indeed everyone, whether engaged in the 
culture of the soil or not, thoroughly understand this ; but we 
do not find the same knowledge of the methods of reproduction 
in vegetable life amongst farmers and others. But agriculturists 
and those engaged in vegetable culture do not as a rule know 
that plants are repreduced on precisely similar lines as animals. 
Schools of Science are established to unravel the secrets of 
Nature in the mineral kingdom ; anatomical classes are open to 
students who intend to make a living by operating on other than 
their own frames, and Veterinary Schools do the same for those 
who desire to so work on the lower animals. All engaged in the 
breeding of animals know exactly how to mate so as to produce 
certain results. Sires are carefully bred, more carefully selected, 
and most carefully reared. All know, if they take the haphazard 
chances of permitting animals to breed according to their own 
will, weedy and valueless ones of no market wor th are the result. 
In cattle they know how to cross-breed their animals so as to 
obtain the best results for the butcher or the dairyman ; or, if it 
be sheep, they know how to breed for wool or for meat ; or if it 
be horses, they breed for strength or for speed. And all this is 
done from the knowledge possessed of the procreative powers in 
both sire and dam. Why i is not a similar knowledge applied to 
fruit or any other crop ? Because not one out of a “thousand has 
suflicient knowledge of their occupation to understand that there 
is a sexuality in plants and that fertilisation is as necessary in 
plants as in animals. 
I said iust now that pollen is the fertiliser, and that this 
substance i is possessed by all flowering plants. The one great aim 
of all vegetable and animal life is to reproduce itself or to 
perpetuate its species. 
Both sexes in all the higher orders of animals possess locomotive 
powers that enable them ‘to come together at cer tain seasons for 
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