CHAPTER XI. 



The Crossing, and the Self-Fertilization, of Plants. 



In Chapter vi, on the processes by which races have 

 . been formed under nature, and varieties have been 

 formed, under domestication, it was shown, that Plants 

 have been greatly modified. Not only do the improve- 

 ments which arise, under domestication, imply the 

 previous loss and reduction of many organs and 

 features; but, this conclusion is incontestably estab- 

 lished by Darwin's testimony, to the effect, that, 



"With species in a state of nature, rudimentary 

 organs are so extremely common that scarcely one can 

 be mentioned which is free from a blemish of this 

 nature ; " 



And, in Chapter iii, authority from Darwin has been 

 adduced to the effect, that nearly every species of Plant 

 has had organs, either reduced, made rudimentary, or 

 completely suppressed, with no vestige of their past 

 existence left. These organs, he asserts, have first be- 

 come of less and less use and ultimately superfluous. 

 He shows, in detail, that there is scarcely an individ- 

 ual plant, under nature, which has not some of the 

 features of its species, absent. Some one, or several, 

 of the following characters, viz., Stamens, stems, ten- 

 drils, tubers, roots, leaves, fruit, flowers, pistil, calyx, 

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