3*74 THE SELF-FERTILIZATION OF PLANTS. 



fact, that they contravene an observed, general result, 

 which makes them abnormal (although it does in one 

 sense ; but that sense is so obvious, that no one, unless 

 he was solicitous to give an impression that he was 

 not passing by facts without explaining them, would 

 ever think of imparting what it needs no ghost, come 

 from his grave, to tell). They are abnormal, by 

 reason of the fact, that they prevail, only when there 

 is a breach of the true coordination of the characters 

 of the given species. "This peculiar state of the 

 reproductive organs,'' is the consequence of the ab- 

 sence, or reduction of characters; which, also, is ab- 

 normal. It is the penalty, entailed upon the organisms, 

 for their departures from the true integrity of their 

 respective species. 



Referring to the self-impotence of many plants, Dar- 

 win remarks (p. in, Origin of Species) : 



" How strange are these facts ! How strange, that 

 the pollen and stigmatic surface of the same flower, 

 though placed so close together, as if for the very 

 purpose of self-fertilization, should, in so many cases, 

 be mutually useless to each other. How simple are 

 these facts explained, on the view of an occasional 

 cross with a distinct individual, being advantageous or 

 indispensable !" 



" How simple ?" aye, how idiotic ! to explain, that 

 the cause of the bane, is the existence of the antidote ! 

 We are lost in wonder, at this evidence of how 

 great an amount of cerebral phosphorus, some of 

 these highly-developed Quadrumana may secrete. 



To paraphrase Darwin's statement : Men frequently 

 fall sick ; " How strange are these facts' How simple 



