Diversions of a NaturalistLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
Diversions of a Naturalist
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history
of their constituent cells. They are male Volvox spheres.
When we now look at the higher plants and animals formed of
aggregations of innumerable cells (all derived from the division of
a first cell--an embryo cell or fertilized egg cell) we find that
amongst the mass of variously shaped cells forming the "tissues" of
these higher organisms some are set apart even in early growth as
"mating cells" (gametes or reproductive cells). Usually they are in
two groups--namely, the ovary, which includes the large mating cells
or egg cells or ova; and the spermary, which includes the cells which
break up into small mating cells or sperms. In many animals both ovary
and spermary are present in the same individual, but in most of the
larger animals (insects, crustaceans, and vertebrates) either the ovary
is suppressed, when the creature is called a male, and produces only
small mating cells, or the spermary is suppressed, and the creature
is a female, producing only egg cells. In both cases there may be a
distinct but minute representative of the suppressed organ present and
recognizable by its microscopic structure.
The point in this history, which seems to be important and must not be
lost sight of, is that the small mating cell is in all the stages cited
actively mobile and swims rapidly through water when its producer is an
aquatic animal. The large mating cell is quiescent. It is more or less
swollen with granular nutrient particles--often vastly so enlarged.
It already is acting the maternal part, preparing nourishment for the
growing embryo which will develop from its protoplasm when fused with
that of the relatively tiny but active male mating cell. And it is
certainly very noteworthy that when these two kinds of mating cells
become separated in distinct "carriers" (that is to say, produced one
without the other in what are called male and female individuals), the
primitive character of the mating cells--whichever of the two kinds
they be--impresses itself on the complex elaborate many-celled organism
in which they arise. The male is the more active, the more disposed to
travel. It is always the male who seeks, courts, woos, and attacks the
female, as the small mating cells seek and attack the larger mating
cells. The character and conduct of the female animal is largely (not
without deviations and additions) based on that of the larger mating
cell or macro-gamete; she is the one who waits, is sought, is courted,
and wooed. And like the egg cells of which she is the vehicle and
envelope, she is specially concerned in the provision of nutriment for
the early growth of the young.
Courtship, then, seems to have had its foundations very deeply laid,
even in the earliest and simplest forms of life--at the time when the
principle of the union of the substance of two strains to produce a new
generation was established, and when, further, the active, seeking male
cell was differentiated from the immobile nourishing female cell.
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