THE COASTS OF SICILY. 225 



But it is principally in the different modes of their 

 reproduction, and during the earliest periods of exist- 

 ence, that the most multiplied and intimate relations 

 manifest themselves. 



Let us give a few examples the better to illustrate 

 these relations. It is well known that in animals 

 the concurrence of two agents is necessary in the 

 greater number of cases to assure the perpetuity of 

 species. It is the same with plants. Among the 

 latter, flowers are generally both male and female, 

 thus realising one of the most graceful fictions of 

 pagan mythology. Around the pistil which encloses 

 the ovule are grouped the stamens, whose pollen is 

 destined to fecundate this germ and to determine its 

 development under the form of seed or fruit. In 

 many cases, however, the sexes are separated. 

 Growing sometimes on the same tree, and some- 

 times on different trees, the male and female flowers 

 require the aid of some intermediate agent to effect 

 their union, and thus the female plant remains 

 barren until the winds convey to it the vivifying 

 emanations by which alone it can be fructified. 

 These diverse relations are all to be met with in 

 the animal kingdom. Here also the myth of the 

 son of Venus and Mercury becomes a reality, al- 

 though in the case of many species the realisation 

 is complicated by many peculiar conditions. Here 

 too the movement of the waves, or the current 

 of rivers, supplies the place of the winds of heaven, 

 and effects an union which would otherwise be im- 

 possible between individuals which are fixed like 

 plants to the soil on which they originated. 



VOL. I. Q 



