Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 885 



even here the lower point remains undeveloped. On the con- 

 trary, the lateral shoots, thus far considered, have no lower 

 point of vegetation ; for their base is united to the maternal 

 shoot, and hence they are mere developments of the upper point 

 of vegetation. Opposed to these, there are, however, other 

 shoots by which the lower point of vegetation is represented, 

 and which on the other hand have no upper point of vegetation. 

 Among these may be reckoned not only the root-branches which 

 take their rise from the main root, but also all adventitious roots 

 which spring from the stem at determinate or indeterminate 

 places. I must, however, content myself with this general hint, 

 as any attempt to particularize these relations could after all 

 only show the deficiency of the investigations into this subject, 

 and how desirable a more comprehensive work is on root-forma- 

 tion in the vegetable kingdom. 



The few points which I have selected out of the inexhaustible 

 field of shoot-formation in the vegetable kingdom may in the 

 mean time suffice to show that the comparison of the vegetable 

 shoot with the animal individual is not far-fetched or arbitrary, 

 but is presented to us by Nature herself. The solution of the 

 difficulties which this mode of conceiving the vegetable indi- 

 vidual encounters in the lowest grades of the vegetable kingdom, 

 I must defer to a later day. These difficulties are founded upon 

 the less complete organization of the inferior plants, and at all 

 events cannot invalidate the results gained in considering the 

 higher organizations. We may therefore consider it settled, 

 that although the individual has not exactly the same importance 

 in the vegetable kingdom as in the animal, plants still realize 

 their vital cycle in sections which are not only comparable to 

 the animal individual, but are in fact its complete analogues. 

 What distinguishes plants is the formation of family-stocks (a 

 formation manifested in the highest vegetable representations, 

 and here in the richest fullness), — as ancestral trees organically 

 connected, variously disposed in their ramifications, and com- 

 prising numerous generations, rendered reciprocally complete 

 through individuals variously endowed. And this leads us back 

 again to the tree from which we set out ; in which even our 

 natural perceptions seemed to discern something more than one 

 common individual, and whose high import scientific research 

 must confirm. Just what at the outset appeared to be an 

 obstacle to our allowing the single shoots of the tree their true 

 significance, — now that we have compared them with alternation 

 of generation in animals, at length proves to be the most con- 

 clusive demonstration of the correctness of our first conception* 

 The conception of these so heterogeneous shoots as individuals 

 of one and the same species has led us, in fact, to a more pro- 



Ann.^ Mag, N. Hist. Ser. 3. Fo/.xviii. 25 



