Correlation 115 



ary to some more general form-determining mechanism, is a basic prob- 

 lem. 



In this chapter there have been presented only a few of the great 

 number of developmental, physiological, and genetic correlations that 

 may be found throughout botanical literature, but these are representa- 

 tive of the rest and emphasize an important fact in plant development. A 

 plant is typically a rather loosely organized system but every part of it is 

 nevertheless affected to some degree by its relations with other parts. 

 These correlations are not random ones but are simple expressions of 

 that general organized interrelatedness that is the distinguishing charac- 

 ter of an organism. What happens to the whole affects the parts and what 

 happens to a part affects the whole. An organ removed from this cor- 

 relative inhibition may have a very different fate from its normal one. A 

 single cell, on isolation, will often regenerate an entire plant. That it 

 did not do so in its original position is owing to this inhibition. The term 

 "correlation" is simply a description of the facts and explains nothing. 

 It is of value, however, in emphasizing that the results of any experi- 

 ment with a portion of the plant body must be interpreted not as an 

 isolated event but as taking place against the background of the whole 

 organism. How each portion of this organism behaves under given con- 

 ditions and what its developmental fate will be depend upon its position 

 in the organized system of which it forms a part. The nature of this or- 

 ganized system is the fundamental problem that continually faces the 

 student of morphogenesis in whatever part of the science he may be at 

 work. 



