334 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 



examination is particularly demanded ; as the vegetable ideal pre- 

 sented to us by the science in its earlier stages has been obscured 

 by conceptions obtained from the animal kingdom having been 

 transferred to Botany, though based upon the mistaken assump- 

 tion that plants possess the same independent individuality as 

 animals, the same organs with equally well-defined functions, 

 and the same mutually dependent relations of the vital activities. 

 And the investigations of late years, forsaking the old views 

 more and more, have arrived at no well-defined conclusions, and, 

 particularly as regards vegetable individuality, seem to lead 

 more to negative than to positive results. After all, this should 

 not surprise us ; for even a superficial investigation shows rela- 

 tions in plants which will hardly harmonize with the common 

 conceptions of individuality, and which require a careful review. 

 In the whole realm of organic nature, we know of not a single 

 species of which any one individual is a perfect representative : 

 on the contrary, we see each species adding generation to gene- 

 ration, by multiplying the individuals in time and space, until 

 its day has ended, whether from internal or external causes. In 

 this particular, the species resembles the individual itself; having 

 its allotted age, though measured by days of a higher order, and 

 its appointed cycle of life, — in which the individuals appear as 

 members occupying a certain time and place, — resembling the 



development, a fundamental discussion of this subject, since it is the 

 ground-work of the whole science. The first two paragraphs under the 

 heading " Das Pflanzenindividuum als Organismus," read as follows : " By 

 individual we here mean a single vegetable body not organically connected 

 with a similar vegetable body. Vegetable individuals have the power of 

 developing the general phaenomena of vegetable life by themselves, unas- 

 sisted by any other individual of the same species. It is the nature of an 



organism to consist of members The possession of members is the 



first, as well as the most essential condition of the existence of the vege- 

 table individual." Not one of these assertions is true of vegetable indi- 

 viduals, either in the broader or the narrower signification of the term. To 

 say nothing of the connexion in which the individuals appear which are 

 successively developed by shoot-formation, the coalescence of stocks which 

 were originally separate is no rarity. Are the pines of the pine-forest no 

 individuals, because, as Goppert has shown, they are connected with each 

 other by their roots ? Do the filaments of Zygnema cease to be individuals 

 when they copulate 1 Are the cells of Hydrodictyon and Pediastrum, ori- 

 ginally separate, no longer individuals when they have joined themselves 

 into a net or a star ? To refute the second assertion, we may refer to 

 dioecious plants ; to refute the third, we refer to the one-celled Algaj 

 and Fungi, a part of which, at least, are of such a character that we can by 

 no means ascribe to them an organization in the usual acceptation of the 

 term. However, we may regard it as an improvement, that Kiitzing's 

 ' Grundziige ' treats of the vegetable individual at all ; for the earlier ma- 

 nuals do not even mention this important subject, but commence their ac- 

 count of plants with descriptions of the root, stem and other organs, or, as 

 it has been preferred of late years, of the cells and vesicles. 



