HERMAPHRODITISM. 7 1 



the pollen of a given flower is quite inoperative on the ovule of the 

 same flower, or has the result of producing weakly offspring. Then 

 there are a great variety of mechanical devices, as the result of which 

 it is more or less physically impossible for the pollen of the stamens 

 to reach the stigmas of the flower, or even to be dusted upon them 

 by the unconscious agency of the intruding insects. Moreover, as 

 among animals, so among plants, it is common for the male organs to 

 become mature before the carpels are ready, or, in rarer cases, for the 

 reverse to occur. 



There is no doubt that cross-fertilization very generally occurs, 

 and it is physiologically probable that this is a considerable advantage, 

 though less among plants (which are so very "female," that is, vege- 

 tative) than among animals. But there is an increasing impression 

 that both the occurrence of cross-fertilization, and the necessity of it 

 among higher plants, have been exaggerated by the extreme Darwinian 

 school: One of the most thoughtful and observant of American botan- 

 ists, Mr. T. Meehan, has raised a vigorous protest against the prevalent 

 view. In the Yucca, or Adam's needle, which is regarded as cross- 

 fertilized by insects, he showed by experiment that there was in each 

 flower " no abhorrence of its own pollen." " Even when fertilized at 

 all by insects, I am sure the fertilization is from the pollen of the same 

 flower. 



Then as to mechanical contrivances, he says, "we are told that 

 iris, campanula, dandelion, oxeye daisy, the garden-pea, lobelia, clover, 

 and many others, are so arranged that they can not fertilize themselves 

 without insect aid. I have inclosed flowers of all these named in fine 

 gauze bags, and they produced seeds just as well as those exposed." 



We can not here enter into a full statement of Meehan' s careful 

 observations, but his three main propositions well deserve statement 

 and due consideration: — 



1. Cross-fertilization by insect agency does not exist nearly to the 

 extent claimed for it. 



2. Where it does exist, there is no evidence that it is of any 

 material benefit to the race, but to the contrary. 



3. Difficulties in self-fertilization result from physiological disturb- 

 ances that have no relation to the general welfare of plants as 

 species. 



VIII. Complemental Males. — When Mr. Darwin was inves- 

 tigating barnacles and acorn-shells, in preparation for his monograph 

 on the group, he discovered the remarkable fact that some of the 

 hermaphrodite individuals carried minute males concealed under their 

 shells. These he regarded as advantageous accessory forms, insuring 

 cross-fertilization in the hermaphrodites which harbor them. The 



