ORGANIC DEVELOPEMENT. 93 
which, when adult, similar shoots proceed. Compare this with the 
strawberry and its creeper, which, in like manner, after growing 
to a certain length, developes a bud of leaves,—the plant-individual, 
—again to send out other creepers, and form, at intervals, other 
leaves. Here we see that the bud acquires a certain length before 
it is finally perfected; the line of cellules, with which the forming 
bud begun, was gradually acquiring the requisite elaborations, and 
concentration within, to develope the new individual. And after 
the distance is reached, the process is still gradual in both cases. 
The polyp rises first as a small protuberance, which gradually 
lengthens into its tubular cylindrical base, and finally the polyp- 
flower is formed at apex. Very similar, as is well known, is the fact 
with the strawberry.* 
91. The production of a branch in zoophytes, at a single budding 
process (§ 70), is another of those singular facts, which appear to find 
their analogies rather among vegetables than animals; and we see it 
exhibited on a large scale in the thyrse of lilac blossoms. The 
general principles of the process are shown in the figures of the 
Alga, on page 91. ‘The budding cellules, from 6 to m, if viewed 
as separated from the coralline, form together a similarly ramose 
branch: and if, instead of each cellule, there were elongated series, 
and the whole, with accompanying tissues and fibres, formed a 
prominent ramose branch, instead of being embedded, as in the 
coralline, we should have a clump of flowers like the llac blossom: 
or, if still partly embedded, the cluster would resemble that of the 
Alcyonium. ‘This subdivision of the flower stems in the lilac, 
takes place at nearly regular intervals, and these intervals decrease 
towards the flowers, as in the cellules of the Alga. The process 
appears to be similar, except, that instead of one cellule, we have a 
series of them before subdivision, precisely as we have a series in the 
* There is little doubt that were the cases equally well brought out to view in all the 
steps, we should find as much reason to say that the ovarian lamella of the polyp are 
altered tentacles, as that the seed-yessels and petals of a flower are altered leaves. The 
same kind of cellules, under different circumstances, originate both. Excessive nourish- 
ment is known to cause the production of leaf-buds in place of flowers, and also to make 
a petal from a stamen ; and for the reason, as has been explained, that the latter, in each 
instance, differs from the other only in requiring, for the production of its few peculiar cha- 
racters, a slower and more quiet and concentrated action of the forces at work, while the 
former may result from a less delicate process of vital chemistry. Only under circumstances 
in the utmost degree fayourable, will certain chemical compositions take place, and here, 
in like manner,—for the difference is in the resulting combinations,—the forces must be 
nicely balanced and not of too rapid application. 
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