THE SELF-FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 36? 



quantity, at the former locality, the plant must, instead 

 of gaining in fertility, become of lessened fertility or 

 sterile ; on account of the reduction or suppression of 

 those parts the conditions whereof, are wanting. Such 

 is the case. 



Darwin says (p. 182, Vol. ii, Animal's and Plants, &c), 

 under the heading of "Sterility from Changed Condi- 

 tions ": 



" I will now attempt to show, that animals and plants 

 when removed from their natural (!) conditions, are 

 often rendered in some degree infertile, or completely 

 barren, and this occurs when the conditions have not 

 been greatly changed. It is notorious that many 

 animals, though perfectly tamed, refuse to breed in 

 captivity." 



The animals, which refuse to breed in captivity, are 

 those which have been taken from a state of nature, 

 and subjected to close confinement. They are barren, 

 because, — though their new conditions may be incapa- 

 ble of reducing any of their features, — those new con- 

 ditions are yet capable of suspending the functions of 

 some of the organs, which is next injurious to their 

 being divested of those parts; inasmuch as the absence 

 of this activity, bereaves the respective organs of that 

 influence upon the aggregate, which is essential to the 

 balance of the whole. Consequently, those organs 

 have not their due influence upon that portion of the 

 system, from which the reproductive element is differ- 

 entiated. This reproductive element is the reflex of 

 the forces of the aggregate, and when the latter is 

 modified, the reproductive power is impaired. Fancy 



