Vegetal Causes. 167 



Sex in vegetals is, fundamentally, nothing but 

 duality, and it is manifested as a reciprocity between 

 organisms which, formed differently but constitution- 

 ally alike, require this reciprocity in order to effect 

 reproduction. Sex in plants is indicated by infinite 

 differences in the floral organs, and reproduction fol- 

 lows on those organs fertilising each other ; but as 

 numerous potentially fertile receptacles evolved on 

 plants often remain unfertilised, this demonstrates 

 that their production is solely automatic, their functions 

 an accident, and their germination a contingency de- 

 pendent practically on chance. Fertilisation, however, 

 is to some extent ensured in all plants by the exces- 

 sive number of agents of generation evolved. This 

 unmistakably indicates that their origin is due to some 

 general fundamental principle in nature itself: the 

 duality already mentioned. The significant fact in 

 fertilisation and reproduction thus is that the acting 

 energies and asrencies are automatic and unintentional. 

 Even those complex mechanical modifications in 

 orchids, familiar to us through Darwin's experiments, 

 which seem to indicate intelligent design, are only 

 the chance modifications of chance organs happening 

 through the chance perturbations of chance conditions. 

 For all plants do not necessarily reproduce, neither 

 are all their evolved improvements continued by habit 

 and confirmed by natural selection. 



The origin of sex thus needs no lengthy argument. 

 It indubitably arises from the fundamental duality 

 or sexuality of primary matter itself. The atoms are 



