The Orderly Cycles Pursued in Growth 357 



The analogy, indeed, goes a long way farther, for, just as the 

 accidental loosening or breaking of some connection causes the 

 machine to work irregularly, or even causes its different parts 

 to work independently of one another, — so the failure of the 

 stimulus-connection in the organism may release some parts from 

 the regulatory control of the remainder and cause them to work 

 more or less independently. Such is without doubt the explana- 

 tion of the abnormal or monstrous growths presently to be con- 

 sidered. The same thing is well known in the animal kingdom, 

 where tumors, for example, are known to be growths released in 

 some way from the regulatory control usually exercised by their 

 connection with the rest of the organism; and w^e have the same 

 thing in mental phenomena, for dreams, in all probability, are 

 simply mental processes whose correlation is temporarily lost in 

 sleep, while insanity is the same thing with the correlation more 

 or less completely or permanently lost. 



\\Tiile the embryo is thus developing from the egg-cell and the 

 seed from the ovule, the fruit is developing from the ovary and 

 other parts of the flower; and this fruit aids in dissemination, by 

 the methods we shall later consider. During dissemination, and 

 often for long after, the seed remains in a resting state, with its vi- 

 tality suspended. In most seeds this resting period is compulsory 

 for a time, at least for several weeks, within w^hich period the seed 

 will not germinate no matter how favorable the conditions that 

 may be offered. The same thing is true, by the way, of winter 

 buds, bulbs, and some other plants, though it is interesting to note 

 that many cultivated plants, notably the grains, have lost the rest- 

 ing period, and will germinate as soon as ripe, even sometimes in 

 the seed pod. The advantage of the resting period to the plant is 

 sufficiently plain: it gives time for dissemination and it prevents 

 premature germination, such as might happen during a warm 

 time in winter, resulting in the destruction of the embryo by the 

 subsequent frosts. It is effected and controlled, of course, by the 

 protoplasm, which uses various arrangements for the purpose, — 



