CHAPTER VI 



MULTIPLE PARENTAGE 



Since the possibility of combining the characters of more than 

 two varieties by crossing has been advocated by the late Mr. E. J. 

 Lowe, and a mass of presumed confirmatory evidence put forward 

 in his interesting work, entitled Fern Growing, we think it only right 

 to give equal publicity to the reasons which, in our opinion, con- 

 trovert this possibility. In the first place must be considered the 

 fundamental simplicity of the operation of fertilization. That 

 operation consists in the fusion of two sexual principles, one con- 

 tained in an ovarial cell, the other in a sperm cell, each of which 

 has been previously prepared by Nature for coalition by the removal 

 of one-half of the vital nucleus, so that, by itself, it is incapable of 

 performing the work of a perfect cell, viz. self-multiplication and 

 contribution thereby to the needful vital work of building up the 

 plant concerned. Nature has provided many modes of bringing 

 these two half-cells together, and it is clear from all biological 

 experiments that when they are brought closely adjacent, the sperm 

 half-cell makes its way to the ovarian half - cell, with which it 

 coalesces, thus constituting one perfect cell by union of the vital half- 

 nuclei, and this done the completed cell proceeds to multiply itself 

 in the usual way, and to build up a now fertilized seed. Obviously 

 with such an arrangement there is absolutely no room for a second 

 sperm cell, much less for several, to operate, the combination is 

 effected, and it is precisely as if a lid had been fitted on to a pill-box 

 and an attempt were made to fit on one or more lids afterwards. 

 The fact that a very much larger number of sperm cells are formed 

 than there are ovarian ones is simply and solely one of those many 

 securities which Nature provides for the permanence of a race, 

 regardless apparently of cost of material. 



With reference to the many combined forms of variation which 

 were produced by Mr. Lowe, by mixtures of spores of Ferns dis- 

 playing different types, we have carefully studied these, and find 

 that in many cases the forms sown were more or less of a 

 protean character, and likely, by themselves, without any cross- 



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