The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

RELATIONS OF ORGANISMS. 167other flower, if that seed is to yield a satisfactoryresult to the horticulturist.We have thus two prominent facts here.The one is the essential importance of the pollenfor fertilization; and the other, the need for thetransference of the pollen from one plant to anotherin order to secure reproduction of vigorousgrowth by the sowing of the seed. Asto the first, the pollen, which appears a finepowder or flour contains fluid protoplasm,that which Professor Huxley has described asthe " single physical basis of life under all thediversities of vital existence." * These pollengrains falling on the seed discharge their protoplasmicfluid upon it, and by this meanscontribute to fertilization. This original orprimordial form of vitalising agency is carriedfrom one part of the flower to another, andthis transference is the law regulating thepropagation of flowering plants.But, just at this point, we come uponthe most striking results of recent research.Though all pollen is of this primary nature,named protoplasm, it is not found to holdtrue that pollen is of the same value for fertilizationfrom whatever quarter it comes.* Lay Sermons, chap. vii., p. 134.