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foist upon organs and organisms a use or design, "whicli further 

 experience shows clearly was never intended. For example : 

 That the pollen of flowers is destined to fall upon the stigmas 

 in order to secure a development of seed is an undoubted and 

 admitted fact. That the stamens should be in the same flowers 

 as the stigmas was looked upon as an instance of perfection; 

 and flowers having all the members well represented were 

 accordingly placed at the head of the list. Now in Dr. 

 WhewelFs contribution to the Bridgewater Treatises, and in 

 Archdeacon Paley^s work on Natural Theology, these authors 

 both allude to the statement attributed to Linnaeus, that 

 pendulous flowers have their stigmas at a lower level than that 

 of the anthers, so that the pollen may fall from them upon the 

 former; while in erect flowers, the anthers, they say, are ele- 

 vated above the stigma, so as to secure the same end. Now 

 how much of this is true? how much is fact? The first state- 

 ment, that pollen must fall on stigmas to secure seed, is the 

 only one that will stand investigation ; and even that requires 

 qualification, as we shall see. With regard to the second ; in a 

 great many plants the " sexes are separated ; that is to say, 

 in some, as the cucumber, the stamens are never in the same 

 flower with the pistils, In others, as the yew-tree, willows, &c., 

 the flowers bearing stamens are not even on the same tree or 

 plant as those having the pistils. Now, with regard to the 

 next statement brought forward by the late Master of Trinity, 

 Cambridge, as an argument of design. This is true for some 

 flowers, e.g,, tulip and fuchsia; but it is not true for crocus, 

 mallow, and many others. In addition to this, some flowers 

 furnish both conditions (primrose and loosestrife), and in others 

 the pollen is so situated that it cannot possibly escape from its 

 confinement without external mechanical agency, and which is 

 effected artificially in nature by insects, as in orchidaceae. These 

 and other facts have led physiologists to discover a very difi'erent 

 "usc*^ or law in nature, and which is expressed by saying 

 that it is more beneficial for a stigma to receive pollen from 

 the stamens of a diff'erent flower (of the same kind) than from 

 those of the flower in which it is itself. Hence there is more 

 reason for believing the " intention to be that of securing the 

 crossing of distinct flowers, as it is called, by the transmission 

 of pollen from one to the other by insect and other agency ; 

 without, however, excluding, in those cases where the two 

 organs are together, the possibility of the pollen of any flower 

 falling upon and so fertilizing the stigma of the same flower. 

 Notwithstanding this, it has been discovered by Mr. Darwin 

 that the pollen of Linum grancUflorum (scarlet-flax) is abso- 

 lutely efl^ete upon the stigma of the flower from which it (the 



