THE SELF-FERTILIZATTON OE PLANTS. 389 



" Willing Nature to thy curious eye, 

 Involved in night, her mazy depths betray." 

 * x * * * * 



" And Nature in primordial beauty seems 

 To breathe, inspired by thee, the Philosophic Soul !"* 



Again does Darwin say (p. 175, Vol. ii, Animals and 

 Plants, &c.) : 



" These facts all point to the same general conclusion, 

 namely, that good is derived from a cross between in- 

 dividuals which, either innately (sic), or from ex- 

 posure to dissimilar conditions, have come to differ in 

 sexual constitution." 



Why, (1) good should be derived from a cross; (2) 

 what this " innate " tendency is, which causes the indi- 

 viduals to differ in sexual constitution; (3) What are 

 these differences in sexual constitution ; (4) and Why 

 exposure to dissimilar conditions produces these sex- 

 ual differences, are conundrums which are not solved 

 upon Darwin's theory, doubtless because it was deemed 

 that to attempt their solution would be in derogation 

 of the respect due to " a great law of nature." 



Darwin is mistaken, not only when he refers the 

 phenomena to "a great law of nature," but also when 

 he contends, that the good from crossing, has any neces- 

 sary connection with any sexual features, or sexual 

 constitution. The good accrues, whenever there is an 

 increase of the number of characters of the individual, 



* These chaste effusions, by admiring friends of Dr. Erasmus Dar- 

 win, are to be found incorporated within an edition of the latter's 

 " Botanic Garden." It is to be regretted, that those works of the 

 imagination, " The Origin of Species" and "Animals and Plants 

 under Domestication" which are much superior, in poetical merit, to 

 " The Loves of the Plants;' were not also set to metre. 



