Vegetable Physiology for the Year 1836. 385 



more perfect it is. 2. The more complete the metamorphosis 

 the more perfect is the vegetable. 3. The most perfect vege- 

 tables have also the most regular and symmetrical formation 

 of the flower. 4. Those are the most perfect which not only 

 possess all organs, but have these also combined in the most 

 perfect harmony. 5. The greater stress nature has laid on 

 the development of the seed, the more perfect is the plant. 

 6. Those vegetables are the most perfect which express in the 

 purest manner by structure, form, numeral relations, and vital 

 manifestations the type of their section. And, 7. since the 

 typical form is the result of the most general relations, it fol- 

 lows from thence that the most perfect groups must be the 

 most numerous and the greatest. 



According to these fundamental positions, which in general 

 are to be admitted, Fries pronounces the Composites to be the 

 most fully developed plants. 



We have received some interesting observations on the 

 generation of some of the lower Algte, which continue to bring 

 nearer to a decision the great question, whether the Bacil- 

 larice, and those beings nearly related to them, are to be class- 

 ed under vegetables or animals. Mohl * first made known 

 some observations on Conferva glomerata, according to which 

 an increase of the members of this plant takes place by sepa- 

 ration. The branches of this vegetable originate constantly 

 on the end of the upper side of a member of the Conferva, and 

 in such a manner that no communication takes place between 

 the cells from which the branches originate and the inferior 

 member of the branch, but both members are entirely sepa- 

 rated by a septum. However, observations on branches just 

 beginning to shoot show that at first this septum is wanting, 

 and that there is present only a hook-like protuberance of the 

 member, which grows in a cylindrical sac of about the com- 

 mon length of the members. A contraction then takes place, 

 and appears in the form of a circular septum, pierced in the 

 centre, which is gradually developed, till at last the connection 

 between the cell of the branch and that of the stem is com- 

 pletely interrupted; and thus two cells entirely separated from 

 each other have originated from the cell of the branch. The 

 newly originated cell increases in size and again divides itself, 

 &c. In consequence of this observation, Mohl supposes that 

 a similar mode of increase takes place also in the genera 

 Scytonema and Oscillatoria ; and in this we almost en- 

 tirely agree with him. The same occurs also in the Rivu- 



• On the Increase of the Cells of Plants by Separation. Tubingen, 1835. 

 (Published towards the end of 1836.) 



Third Series. Vol.11. No. 68. Oct. 1837. 3D 



