868 THE SELF-FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 



a monkey, taken from the wild state, wherein he so 

 disported himself as to keep his cerebellum constantly 

 on the qui vive in order to coordinate every fibre and 

 muscle in his body; and placed in a cage, three feet 

 by three, where he is constrained to a quiet, modest 

 behavior. If the reproductive element derives its 

 capacity, from the coordination of all the parts, is it 

 any wonder, that the animal refuses to breed? Of 

 course, the conditions of food, of drink, of air, etc., 

 enter into the problem. But, in every aspect of the 

 case, the cause of the sterility resolves itself into the 

 want of perfect coordination of the parts — be those parts 

 suppressed, reduced, or only measurably atrophied ; be 

 the reduction in characters, structural, or merely func- 

 tional. 



But, in these cases, where animals, in captivity, re- 

 fuse to breed, there has often been an actual reduction 

 and suppression of some of the features of the animals ; 

 — doubtless due to correlation" with those parts con- 

 strained to unwonted inactivity. On page 193, Vol. ii, 

 Animals and Plants, &c, Darwin notices many cases, 

 where the sterility of captive animals has been at- 

 tended with the loss of characters of the individual. 

 He does not discern the relation between the two, but 

 he states the facts as severally existing. 



Darwin says (p. 337, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c)\ 



"Slight variations, of many kinds, * * * are 

 retained as long as plants are grown in certain soils, of 

 which Sageret gives, from his own experience, some 

 instances." 



If such plants are removed to another soil, wanting 



