tiles


Note:  Do not rely on this information. It is very old.

Hermaphrodite

Hermaphrodite (a name derived from the legend that Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, was uniteel with the nymph Salmacis into one body), a term used in zoology to sohw that an animal has but one sex, the male and female reproductive organs being united in the same individual - e.g. the common hydra.

Among plants it is a purely structural term, equivalent to bisexual or monoclinous, being used of flowers which contain both stamens and carpels, as opposed to diclinous. It does not at all necessarily imply that the flower is self-pollinating, the two kinds of organs, in fact, very often maturing at different times. [Dichogamy.]