FERTILIZATION AND CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 73 



Mr. Darwin, and which Prof. Robinson thought excellent, were as 

 follows : ' ' "We here see how gardeners can improve their plants by 

 sowing mixed seeds of a variety, a result easily attained by pur- 

 chasing peas, beans, or other seeds, from three or four seedsmen 

 whose seeds of the same variety were produced in different localities, 

 instead of purchasing all of any given variety of one seedsman. 

 This may cause a little more trouble, but, as Darwin, Gower, and 

 Lecoq have demonstrated, the results thus attainable are worthy of 

 extra care in culture. By all seed-growers, for trade pui-poses, this 

 book of Darwin's should be specially studied, and to them we most 

 cordiaUy recommend it." 



Prof. Robinson thought it an outrage to apply the term ' ' sensa- 

 tional " as Mr. Hovey had done, to the writings of such a man as 

 Mr. Darwin, who was acknowledged by every one to be a most ac- 

 curate observer and a careful and thorough experimenter. Mr. 

 Hove}' thinks cross-fertihzation the exception and self-fertilization 

 the rule. Others differ from him, and when we see plants arranged 

 like the orchids and willows, where self-fertilization is rendered im- 

 possible, we cannot think it strange that they should differ. Prof. 

 Robinson here read from a review of Mr. Darwin's book, in the 

 "American Joiu-nal of Science and Art," by Prof. Asa Gray — 

 " That cross-fertilization is largely' but not exclusively aimed at in 

 the vegetable kingdom, is abundantly evident. As Mr. Darwin 

 declares, 'it is as unmistakably plain that innumerable flowers are 

 adapted for cross-fertilization, as that the teeth and talons of a car- 

 nivorous animal are adapted for catching prey, or that the plumes, 

 wings, and hooks of a seed are adapted for its dissemination.' That 

 the crossing is beneficial, and consequently the want of it injurious, 

 is a teleological inference from the prevalence of the arrangements 

 which promote or secure it — an influence the value of which in- 

 creases with the number, the variety, and the effectiveness of the 

 arrangements for which no other explanation is forthcoming. That 

 the good consisted in a re-invigoration of progeny, or the evil of 

 close-breeding in a deterioration of vigor, was the suggestion first 

 made (so far as we know), or first made prominent by Knight, 

 from whom Darwin adopted it." Many persons, prominent among 

 them Thomas Meehan, are continually bringing up instances to show 

 that plants are close-fertilized. This is not denied by an}- scien- 

 tific man of any repute. In the words of Prof. Goodale, " What is 

 claimed, and what is in perfect consonance with such statements is 

 10 



