370 THE SELF-FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 



from plants which, when fertilized by their own pollen, 

 yield the full number of seeds, but with the seedlings a 

 little dwarfed in stature, — to plants which, when self- 

 fertilized, yield few seeds, — to those which yield none, 

 — and, lastly, to those in which the plant's own pollen 

 and stigma act on each other like poison." 



One would presume, that this "graduated series" of 

 effects, instead of being " interesting," would be rather 

 disheartening, to a scientist who had given nearly a 

 half century to the study of plants, without making 

 one step towards a solution which could give a quan- 

 titative explanation of these phenomena ! His " law 

 of nature " is no explanation — it is a farce, in the 

 light of the many exceptions there are to it, and in the 

 light of this " graduated series." It does not allow 

 such exceptions; it permits no such " graduated series ;" 

 nor does it contemplate such infinite variations in the 

 quantity of effect. This "law of nature," of his, is but 

 the formula of the re-statement of an observed general 

 effect. It is an insult to the very name of science to 

 formulate such a " law." His " law of nature " is 

 born of an order of thought, no higher than that 

 which ascribes results to a fetich. It would have 

 been the occasion of little surprise, that Darwin 

 assigned such a " cause," had his acquaintance with 

 the phenomena of lessened fertility, been a meagre 

 one. But, to perpetrate such an absurdity, after no- 

 ting such a diversity of effects (a diversity, plainly 

 intimating, that a vera causa exists, and that it lies 

 within easy reach of discovery, at the recurrence of 

 each variation in the effects), betrays habits of thought 

 of the most slovenly character. Darwin has genius ; 



