312 THE SELF-FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 



tinctured with the faintest trace of orthodoxy, who may 

 have the effrontery to entertain or propound such a 

 view! 



When, in times past, before was waged that "fearful 

 Struggle for Existence," of which "Natural Selection'' 

 was the outcome, all of the chemical elements and con- 

 ditions essential to the full and proportionate develop- 

 ment of a plant, were adequately supplied; all the fea- 

 tures and organs of the plant, were in full and harmo- 

 nious proportion. When fertilized by its own pollen, 

 its fertility was at its maximum, and the flowers yielded 

 their" full number of seeds. When the species became 

 modified, — when parts of the plant became some- 

 what reduced, — the plant "when fertilized by its own 

 pollen," had its "flowers to yield the full number of 

 seeds, but with the seedlings a little dwarfed ; " When 

 the plant, "in the terrible battle of life," had departed 

 further from its primitive, and normal type; when the 

 loss and reduction of parts, became more pronounced, 

 the plant, when self-fertilized, yielded "few seeds;" 

 When the departure from full integrity, grew greater 

 still ; when many organs had been reduced to a ru- , 

 dimentary condition; the plant yielded "no seed;" 

 When the degeneration progressed, the reproductive 

 elements found not, represented in them, the forces 

 of that number of characters of the species which 

 was necessary to the reciprocal play of their functions 

 of integration. Self-impotence, then, characterized the 

 plants: When this, or a greater, departure from the 

 original mould had ensued, the reproductive elements, 

 being incapable of any integration whatever, under- 



