298 LECTURE VII. 



unless excited by the application of a pe- 

 culiarly stimulating substance prepared by 

 other organs, called male. Sometimes 

 both kinds of organs are found in the 

 same vegetable or animal, and sometimes 

 the organs of each sex are allotted to dif- 

 ferent individuals. How far the preroga- 

 tive of the female organs may extend with 

 respect to their power of forming the rudi- 

 ments or primordia of the embryon before 

 the peculiar stimulus is applied which is 

 said to fecundate the ovum, is probably 

 unknown. The female organs of plants 

 will, I believe, prepare a seed, though no 

 fecundation has taken place. The progress 

 of the formation of the young vegetable 

 in the seeds of different plants is known to 

 vary considerably. In the common bean, 

 the plumula or first shoot is very evident, 

 and even well formed. Experiments on ve- 

 getables might tend to elucidate the extent 

 of the powers allotted to the female organs. 

 Frogs and fish prepare and exclude their 

 membranaceous ova prior to fecundation ; 

 and some degree of organization is discover- 

 able in that part which would produce the 



