1 79 
On the Nature of Fertilization and Sex. 
The plants (“ sporophytes ”) are said to be of two kinds—“male 
plants” and “ female plants.” As the reference is to the sporophytes, 
terms signifying sex should not, strictly speaking, be employed, but the 
two kinds of plants should be described as “ microspore-producing” 
and “ megaspore-producing.” Since the microspores normally 
produce male gametes (with “ active” type of protoplasm) and the 
megaspores normally produce female gametes (with “ passive ” type 
of protoplasm) the sex terms, which should be reserved for the 
gametes, have come to be applied to the sporophyte by a process 
of mental short-circuiting and for the sake of brevity. 
It is very necessary, in a discussion such as the present, to 
distinguish with the greatest clearness between the so-called “sex” 
of the sporophyte and the sex of the gametes. One way of 
accomplishing this would be to place the words “ male ” and 
“ female ” within inverted commas when they were intended to 
signify a microspore-bearing or megaspore-bearing individual, 
while male and female without inverted commas would be under¬ 
stood to refer to the male and female gametes, or other tissues 
composed of “ active ” and “ passive ” kinds of protoplasm. Indeed, 
the complete disuse of the words “ male,” “ female ” and “ sex ” in 
respect to the sporophyte of a plant is logically called for, as the 
gametes undoubtedly have a preferential claim to the use of these 
terms. Nevertheless, their usage in the former relation has become 
so general that the prejudice against restriction of use to the 
gametes alone, however reasonable on purely logical grounds, 
would be wellnigh insurmountable. Yet some distinctive terms 
must be employed unless we are to be involved in hopeless 
confusion. 
The following conventional system of nomenclature will be 
made use of for purposes of discussion as providing a way out of 
the impasse without prejudice to any more satisfactory solution 
that may be forthcoming subsequently. 
The two kinds of protoplasm (“ active ” and “ passive ”) are 
designated “ androplasm ” and “ gynoplasm.” The protoplasm of 
a spermatozoid is therefore “ androplasmic,” that of an egg-cell 
“ gynoplasmic ” : while the spermatozoids and ova, instead of 
being called male and female gametes, are called “ androplasmic 
gametes ” and “ gynoplasmic gametes ” respectively. The terms 
“ male ” and “ female ” are retained for use in connection with the 
sporophyte of the plant, as signifying a microspore-producing or 
megaspore-producing individual and are used only in this sense, 
