METHODS OF REPRODUCTION 143 



with this difference, that in the former the reproduc- 

 tive body is a single cell, while in the latter it is 

 usually multicellular. 



In many plants, such as Plantain, Onion, Garlic, 

 Potato, Sweet-potato, shank-aloo, and Sugar-cane, 

 vegetative reproduction seems to be quite sufficient 

 to secure the necessary multiplication of the species. 

 In fact, some of them hardly ever produce fertile 

 seeds, or, even if they do, are rarely propagated 

 from them. In most plants, however, sexual repro- 

 duction is the rule, and the vegetative method of 

 propagation is hardly ever resorted to. 



Now the question that naturally arises is, Why are 

 there so many methods of reproduction while one 

 method perhaps would have been quite sufficient? 

 Moreover, the sexual method is a far more compli- 

 cated process than the other two methods. The sexual 

 method, therefore, is evidently meant to subserve a 

 purpose which the others fail to effect. In this method 

 the properties of both the parents are combined and 

 transmitted to the progeny, whereas the vegetatively 

 produced offspring is identical in properties with the 

 single parent which gives birth to it. The sexually 

 produced offspring can never be identical in pro- 

 perties either with the male parent or the female 

 parent, but possesses properties of both. This blend- 

 ing of properties is of immense value in the preser- 

 vation of the species, inasmuch as, under changed 

 conditions, the sexually produced offspring, which has 

 inherited the properties of both the parents, has far 

 greater capacity to adapt itself to changed conditions 

 of life, and to survive in the struggle for existence, 

 than the vegetatively produced offspring with its neces- 

 sarily lesser power of adaptation and lesser chance of 

 surviving in the struggle for life. The sexual method 



