Identifier: b20442221 (find matches)
Title: Sex (electronic resource)
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Geddes, Patrick, Sir, 1854-1932.
Subjects: Sex
Publisher: New York : H. Holt and company London : Williams and Norgate
Contributing Library: Wellcome Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellcome Library

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Fig. ti.—Female reproductive organ or archegonium in theAdders Tongue Fern—Ophioglossum—and the motilemale cells or antherozooids (SP). The egg-cell is marked0V; it lies in a flask-like recess, the neck of which shows amucous secretion through which the male cells roakotheir way. (After Bruchmann.) transportation, from blossom to blossom, bythe wind or by the agency of insects (Fig. 7). To the question why the dimorphism ofgerm-cells should have been justified in thecourse of evolution, two answers may begiven, (a) A number of facts point to thegeneral conclusion that cross-fertilisation isadvantageous. Darwin first clearly showed— THE EVOLUTION OF SEX 37 and despite some exaggerations his generalconclusion survives—that the progeny ofcross-fertilised plants are more successful and
Text Appearing After Image:
Fia. 7.—Diagram of a flower. S, sepal; P, petal; ST, stamenwith anther (A) liberating pollen grains; P, pistil; OV,ovary enclosing an ovule which shows an embryo-sacwith the egg-cell (E), the endosperm nucleus (N), andthe antipodal cells (C); on the stigma are seen severalpollen-grains (PG) whose pollen-tubes are growing downthe style towards the egg-cell. (After Sachs.) more fertile than those of similar plants selffertilised. Now cross-fertilisation will be morereadily secured if one of the germ-cells be 38 SEX specialised as a locomotor element. Wereboth locomotor, as in some Protozoa, thelikelihood of cross-fertilisation would begreater still, but the egg would not then beso well adapted in the way of providing theinitial material for development and somenutriment as well. As for the condition seenin most Crustaceans and in Nematode worms,where the sperms are sluggish, and amoeboidrather than flagellate, the males have to makeup for the loss of activity on the part of theirsperm

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