Bramble-bees and Others 



lucid and seductive. But is it correct? That 

 is another question. 



One might begin by reproaching it with 

 making a singular exception to one of the 

 most general rules. Which of us, casting his 

 eyes over the whole zoological progression, 

 would dare to assert that the egg is originally 

 male and that it becomes female by fertiliza- 

 tion? Do not the two sexes both call for the 

 assistance of the fertilizing element? If there 

 be one undoubted truth, it is certainly that. 

 We are, it is true, told very curious things 

 about the Hive-bee. I will not discuss them: 

 this Bee stands too far outside the ordinary 

 limits; and then the facts asserted are far 

 from being accepted by everybody. But the 

 non-social Bees and the predatory insects have 

 nothing special about their laying. Then why 

 should they escape the common rule, which 

 requires that every living creature, male as 

 well as female, should come from a fertilized 

 ovule ? In its most solemn act, that of procrea- 

 tion, life is one and uniform; what it does 

 here it does there and there and everywhere. 

 What! The sporule of a scrap of moss re- 

 quires an antherozoid before it is fit to germi- 

 nate: and the ovule of a Scolia, that proud 



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