T II E ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 94. OCTOBER 1855. 



XXI. — The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. By 

 Dr. Alexander Braun, Professor of Botany in the Univer- 

 sity of Berlin, &c.* Translated by Chas. Francis Stone. 



Part I. — Introduction and HisTORYf. 



In Organic Nature the two principal phsenomena, in which the 

 shifting scenes of Life are unfolded, are individual development 

 and individual propagation. Through them the intricate course 

 of Nature, and its living chain of organized beings, are refreshed 

 and renewed. Every new generation seems to bring back the 

 old form ; still, to the investigator who looks deeper into the 

 graves of the past, a slow, but certain, progress reveals itself even 

 in this apparently identical succession. If Nature is to be for us 

 something more than a labyrinth of varied and intricate phseno- 

 mena ; and if, in the apparent disorder, the hidden threads of the 

 connexion are to become visible, we must first of all separate 

 and compare the different spheres of life, placing them higher or 

 lower according to their rank. The starting-points which Nature 

 offers for such a purpose are, the Individual and the Species; 

 whose reciprocal relations, however simple they may at first 

 appear, when followed out to particulars lead to difficulties w^hich 

 demand an accurate examination {. From the botanist such an 



* From the Transactions of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences 

 for 1853. — Reprinted from Silliraan's American Journal for May 1855. 



t I have omitted the author's brief introductory remarks. — Transl. 



X Should any one be inclined to doubt that the nature of the vegetable 

 individual needs a further discussion, I would beg him to turn to the latest 

 works on Botany and compare the passages which treat of the plant's in- 

 dividuality. I take Kiitzing's Grundziige der phil. Botanik (2nd Part), as 

 we have a right to demand from a work that lavs claim to philosophical 



Ann. S^ Mag. N, Hist. Ser. 2. Vol.xy'i. " 16 



