OBJECTIONS AGAINST E VOLUTION. 189 



their own pollen. The corydalis cava is a striking 

 illustration of this strange phenomenon. Accord- 

 ing to Hildebrand, the flowers of this species are 

 absolutely incapable of being fecundated by their 

 own pollen, and are rendered but imperfectly fertile 

 by pollen from other flowers of the same stem. 

 They are, however, always perfectly fecundated 

 when the pollen is brought from a flower of a differ- 

 ent stalk, or from the flower of a closely allied 

 species. In this case we are absolutely certain that 

 the stamens and carpels of any given flower, came 

 from the same seed ; that they have, consequently, 

 a common parentage. Wherefore, then, their ste- 

 rility; and why is it that the carpel of the given 

 flower can be perfectly fecundated only by pollen 

 from the flower of an independent stem, or of a dif- 

 ferent species? The only answer which can con- 

 sistently be given by anti-evolutionists, who pin 

 their faith to the usually-accepted definition of 

 physiological species, is that the stamens and car- 

 pels, not only of the different flowers of the same 

 stem, but also those of the same flower of the given 

 stalk, belong to distinct species, and that only the 

 stamens and carpels of flowers of independent plants, 

 or of different species, belong to the same species. 

 It is scarcely necessary to observe that a more 

 perfect reductio ad absurdum can hardly be im- 

 agined. 



Strictly speaking, the infertility of hybrids is 

 rather an objection against the theory of natural 

 selection than against that of Evolution. From 

 what is known of the extreme sensitiveness of the 



