34° 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol V, No. 7, 
out these problems is a slow and difficult process as the writer 
has discovered from experience. 
Finally a word may be added as to the significance of reduc- 
tion and conjugation in the origin of species. The mixing of 
jmotoplasms with diverse hereditary characters must cause a 
great disturbance in the hereditary ap])aratus. We may think 
of a struggle of two characters one against the other, the one 
becoming dominant and the other unable to reassert itself. We 
may picture to ourselves the powerful stimulus of the one on the 
other and the reaction and rearrangement of the material mosaic 
which may result in the evolution of a monstrosity or a new 
species. But crossing must after all tend to uniformity. It is 
the origin of sexual barriers and the barriers induced bv the 
activity of one hereditary tendency over another which has led 
to diversity in plant and animal life so far as this has any relation 
to the sexual process. Variation and diversity of ty]>e is just as 
prominent a characteristic of nonsexual as of sexual organisms. 
The new forms resulting from near or distant crosses must be 
regarded as merely incidental in the great process of the evolu- 
tion of the diverse life of the earth, the real and fundamental 
cause lying in the nature of protojjlasm itself whether of sexual 
or nonsexual organisms. Variation is a property of ]jrotoplasm 
and reproduction is primarily a matter of as.similation and 
growth. If sexuality were the primary cause of variation we 
would logically have to suppose a multitude of sexual races in 
the beginning rather than a simple nonsexual and uniform group 
of organisms which has evolved and segregated into new types 
without any special reference as to whether the units in the 
process have acquired sexuality or having acquired it once have 
lost it again in ages past. 
A LIST OF OHIO PLANTS WITH COMPOUND LEAVES. 
Walter Fischer. 
In making out a list of plants having compound leaves, a few 
words on this subject and on the light relation of plants in general 
may not be out of place. 
From what is known of the function of leaves it is evident 
that with the exception of plants in xerophytic conditions, the 
greater the surface exposed and provided this is done in such a 
way as not to handicap the plant in other ways, the better will 
that plant be enabled to survive in its struggle for existence. 
Plants may secure a better exposure to light and air in any 
of the following ways; 
1. By motile leaves and stems. 
