ON BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES. 281 



It remains for me only to indicate what bearing I consider the 

 observations I have made to have on us and our work. What is 

 the practical conclusion to which we are led, by assuming such a close 

 relationship between the manifestations of life in plants and animals, 

 such an analogy, if not identity, of phenomena ? In the first place 

 I consider that it justifies the union of all biologists, as in this and 

 similar associations, in one and the same society. It is well enough, 

 for purely classificatory purposes, that ornithologists, lepidopterists, 

 bryologists, fungologists, and other specialists, should have their 

 associations. There are facts of distribution, variation, &c, in 

 which they alone are particularly interested, to be recorded, but out- 

 side the limited interest in an organism which is bounded by its 

 specific name, there are larger and more universal interests which 

 do not belong to the specialist alone, but is the common property of 

 all biologists, and which they should- be made to feel and share. 

 In associations which for any purpose unite all sections of biologists, 

 their justification may be read in our suggestions. 



In the next place, it is more than justified, it is shown to be 

 absolutely essential for their success that co-operation should be 

 maintained between zoologists and botanists. It is not enough for 

 the botanist that he should be acquainted with flowering plants 

 alone, he should also know something of the life-history of the 

 lower vegetable organisms, even down to a single cell. Nor can he 

 stop here, for if he would rightly comprehend the metamorphoses, 

 the alternation of generations, the different phases which he en- 

 counters, he must have some knowledge of the same phenomena 

 as exhibited in the animal world. It may not be necessary that he 

 should follow the example of Adam, and give to every animal a 

 name, but he should know something of its career between its ovum 

 and final act of sexual reproduction. Human life is too short and 

 exacting to permit of a close pursuit simultaneously of all branches 

 of biological science, but the facts gleaned by mutual intercourse 

 may be gathered without effort, and no item of experience so 

 obtained will be barren in the future. No discovery in the life 

 history of animals is, or ought to be, devoid of interest to the 

 botanist, as no investigation in the phenomena of life in plants can 

 be ignored by the zoologist. The earnest worker knows well enough 

 in whichever field his operations may be made, what a flood of light 

 may illume his work which proceeds from the other side. 



Thirdly, if it be true that there is so great an analogy between 

 the phenomena of life in both worlds, this should lead to a greater 



