The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological PhilosophyHaeckel, Ernst
Philosophy
The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological Philosophy
Haeckel, Ernst
Biology; Evolution (Biology); Life -- Origin
Individuals of the third order, which we call stocks (_cormi_) in both
the plant and animal worlds, also exhibit varying features in the
sex-persons which compose them. When male and female diclinic sprouts
or persons are found side by side on the same stock, we call this
hermaphrodism of the cormi _monœcia_ ("one-housedness"); this is the
case with most of the siphonophora and some of the corals. _Diœcia_
("two-housedness") is less common: in this one stock has only male and
the other only female sprouts or persons, as in poplars and osiers,
most of the corals, and some of the siphonophora. The physiological
advantages of crossing--the union of sex-cells of different
individuals--favor progressive sex-division in the higher organisms.
A comparative study of the features of hermaphrodism and sex-division
in the plant and animal worlds teaches us that both forms of
sex-activity are often found in closely related organisms of one and
the same group, sometimes even in different individuals of the same
species. Thus, for instance, the oyster is usually gonochoristic, but
sometimes hermaphroditic; and so with many other mollusks, vermalia,
and articulata. Hence, the question often raised, which of the two
forms of sex-division is original, is hardly susceptible of a general
answer, or without relation to the stage of individuality and the place
in classification of the group under discussion. It is certain that in
many cases hermaphrodism represents the original feature; for instance,
in most of the lower plants and many of the stationary animals
(sponges, polyps, platodes, tunicates, etc.). Where we find exceptions
in these groups, they are of secondary origin. It is equally certain,
on the other hand, that in other cases the separation of the sexes is
the primitive arrangement; as in siphonophoræ, ctenophoræ, bryozoa,
cirripedia, and mollusks. In these cases the hermaphrodism is clearly
secondary in the sense that the hermaphrodites descend originally from
gonochorists.
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