TNIVERSI 

 ERRONEOUS DEDUCTION-. 



clearly wrong in his deductions. Some of them 

 he corrected himself, for some he accepted the 

 corrections of others ; and some have never yet 

 been corrected directly, but only by the adop- 

 tion of the contrary principle from a study of 

 facts similar to those on which Darwin went 

 wrong. When his attention had become fixed 

 upon the cowslip (Primula veris), he found that 

 there were two forms of flowers on plants of 

 this species. He said, "The first idea which 

 naturally occurred to me was, that this species 

 was tending towards a dioecious condition; that 

 the long-styled plants, with their longer pistils, 

 rougher stigmas, and smaller pollen grains, were 

 more feminine in nature, and would produce 

 more seed; that the short-styled plants, with 

 their shorter pistils, longer stamens, and larger 

 pollen grains, were more masculine in nature." 1 

 Nothing would seem more natural than that the 

 structural differences between the flowers should 

 indicate differences in sexual function. The 

 knowledge of dioecious plants and belief in the 

 modification of species could plainly suggest but 

 one interpretation of the structural differences of 

 the two kinds of flowers. Either they indicated 

 what was inferred from them, or they could 



1 Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same 

 Species, pp. 18-21. 



13 



