144 LAWS OF MULTIPI.ICATIOX. 



fairly be classed as structurally inferior to those provided with 

 Btems formed of woody fibres ; for these imply additional dif- 

 ferentiations, and constitute wider departures from the primi- 

 tive type of vegetal tissue That the concomitant of this 

 higher organization is a slower gamogenesis, scarcely needd 

 pointing out. While the herbaceous annual is blossoming 

 and ripening seed, the young tree is transforming its ori- 

 ginally-succulent axis into dense fibrous substance ; and year 

 by 3^ear the young tree expends in doing the like, nutriment 

 which successive generations of the annual expend in fruit. 

 Here the inverse relation is between sexual reproduction and 

 complexity, and not between sexual reproduction and bulk 

 seeing that besides seeding, the annual often grows to a size 

 greater than that reached by the young infertile tree in 

 several years. 



Proof of the antagonism between complexity and gamo- 

 genesis in animals, is still more difficult to disentangle. Per- 

 haps the evidence most to the point is furnished by the contrast 

 between Man and certain other Mammals approaching to him 

 in mass. To compare him with the domestic Sheep, which, 

 though not very unlike in size, is relatively prolific, is objec- 

 jectionable because of the relative inactivity of Sheep; and 

 this, too, may be alleged as a reason why the Ox. though far 

 more bulky, is also far more fertile, than Man. Further, 

 against a comparison with the Horse, which, while both larger 

 and more prolific, is tolerably active, it may be urged that, in 

 his case, and the cases of herbivorous creatures generalh^, the 

 small exertion required to procure food, joined with the great 

 ratio borne by the assimilative organs to the organs they have 

 to build up and repair, vitiates the result. We may, however, 

 fairly draw a parallel between Man and a large carnivore. The 

 Lion, superior in size, and perhaps equal in activity, has a 

 digestive system not proportionately greater ; and yet has a 

 higher rate of multiplication than Man. Here the only de- 

 cided w^ant of parity, besides that of organization, is that of 

 food. Possibly a carnivore gains an advantage in having a 



