COURTSHIP 185 



Usually they are in two^roups — namely, the ovary, which 

 includes the large mating cells or egg cells or ova ; and 

 the spermary, which includes the cells which break up 

 into small mating cells or sperms. In many animals 

 both ovary and spermary are present in the same 

 individual, but in most of the larger animals (insects, 

 crustaceans, and vertebrates) either the ovary is sup- 

 pressed, when the creature is called a male, and produces 

 only small mating cells, or the spermary is suppressed, 

 and the creature is a female, producing only egg cells. 

 In both cases there may be a distinct but minute repre- 

 sentative of the suppressed organ present and recognizable 

 by its microscopic structure. 



The point in this history, which seems to be important 

 and must not be lost sight of, is that the small mating 

 cell is in all the stages cited actively mobile and swims 

 rapidly through water when its producer is an aquatic 

 animal. The large mating cell is quiescent. It is more 

 or less swollen with granular nutrient particles — often 

 vastly so enlarged. It already is acting the maternal 

 part, preparing nourishment for the growing embryo 

 which will develop from its protoplasm when fused with 

 that of the relatively tiny but active male mating cell. 

 And it is certainly very noteworthy that when these two 

 kinds of mating cells become separated in distinct 

 " carriers " (that is to say, produced one without the 

 other in what are called male and female individuals), 

 the primitive character of the mating cells — whichever 

 of the two kinds they be — impresses itself on the com- 

 plex elaborate many-celled organism in which they arise. 

 The male is the more active, the more disposed to 

 travel. It is always the male who seeks, courts, woos, 

 and attacks the female, as the small mating cells seek 

 and attack the larger mating cells. The character and 



