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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 04 Aug 2013

Taken: 04 Aug 2013

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Michigan •
Okemos •
Back yard •
Squirrels •
Black and White •
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The Descent of Man •
Charles Darwin •
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Schwarz & Weiß

Schwarz & Weiß
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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
We are naturally led to inquire why the male, in so many and such distinct classes, has become more eager than the female, so that he searches for her, and plays the more active part in courtship. It would be no advantage and some loss of power if each sex searched for the other; but why should the male almost always be the seeker? The ovules of plants after fertilization have to be nourished for a time; hence the pollen is necessarily brought to the female organs --n being placed on the stigma, by means of insects or the wind, or by the spontaneous movements of the stamens; and in he Algae, etc., by the locomotive powers of the anthrozooids. With lowly-organized aquatic animals, permkanently affixed to the same spot and having their sexes separate, the male element is invariably brought to the female; and of this we can see the reason, for even if the ova were detached before fertilization, and did not require subsequent nourishment or protection, there would yet be greater difficulty in transporting them than the male element, because, being larger than the latter they are produced in far smaller numbers. So that many of the lower animals, are in this respect analogous with plants. The males of affixed and aquatic animals having been led to emit their fertilizing element in this way, it is natural that any of their descendants, which rose in the scale and became locomotive, should retain the same habit; and they would approach the female as closely as possible in order not to risk the loss of the fertilizing element in the long passage of it through the water. With some few of the lower animals, the females alone are fixed, and the males of these must be the seekers. But it is difficult to understand why the males of species, of which the progenitors were primordially free, should invariably have acquired the habit of approaching the female, instead of being approached by them. But in all cases, in order that males should seek efficiently, it would be necessary that they should be endowed with strong passions; and the acquirement of such passions would naturally follow from the more eager leaving it larger number of offspring than the less eager. ~ Page 230/231
23 months ago.
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
THE DESCENT OF MAN
23 months ago.

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