490 Scientific Intelligence. 
elaborate, mostly able as well as ingenious, in all respects con- 
siderable, and unconvincin at esis is, the Darwinian “ 
ture abhors ae self- fertilization,” read backward. It con- 
cludes that. “not only are the majority of plants self-fertilizing, 
but that tod which are exclusively so propagate abundantly 
and with extraordinary rapidity, are best able to establish them- 
selves in foreign countries, as, being quite sink Saree of ante: 
they Pt no — we extermination on that score;.. . hat, so far 
accord with vegetable Paleontology 
oie He that he has one staunch supporter; “ for, 
as has been seen, Mr. "T. Meehan has arrived at the same conclu- 
sion ; and indeed he builds not a little upon facts supplied by 
Mr. Meehan’s observations. He cites the latter’s “ admirable 
paper, which was reproduced in the ‘ Gardner’s Chronicle’ for 
“— 
° 
4 
Le | 
+ &, 
o 
pe 
fe) 
t 
sini to be normally self- fertilizin , and nineteen “chief facts 
which may be regarded as oceurring ‘correlatively with self-fertil- 
ization, some being actual causes which directly or indirectly 
bring it about,” it would appear that it is no longer self-fertiliza- 
tion, but rather the existence and raison d’étre 5 Perea Sap 
tion that stands in need of eee or of explana 
He freely concedes that the flowers of many pinnels poe 
e 
normally self: fertilizing” | because they can and do fertilize them- 
selves habitually,” yet “may in some cases be cross-fertilized 
be nace sects.” It is admitted that the structure of the latter is 
and free from i — ability, comes to regard in- 
merel compensatory process for the loss of 
aa a erp 6 
But how and why did this “compensatory process come to 
