INTRODUCTORY S 



female cells, then both are usually motile and the attraction 

 seems to be exerted mutually^ 



From this it would appear to be evident that the male 

 and female cells are in any case of opposite polarity and 

 that when the female organ is non-motile it is because its 

 .electrical tension is greatly in excess of that of the male 

 cell. 



Another analogy between animal and vegetable is to be 

 found in the placenta which although common enough is 

 perhaps best exemplified in the runner bean. In the human 

 being the placenta is a spongy, vascular mass through which 

 the maternal blood is conveyed to the fcetus and which 

 also secretes glycogen, possibly for the purpose of sustaining 

 animal heat. In the plant it is a projection on the inner wall 

 of the ovary, to which the ovules, or rudimentary seeds, 

 are attached. 



As regards the inception of the seed we cannot go further 

 back in its history than the formation of the pollen-mother 

 and as vital processes are continually going on, there is life — 

 although it may be only the life of the mother plant — 

 and we are no nearer to a perception of the origin of life 

 than we were with the animal embryo. 



But several considerations present themselves. 



In the first place cell-division in both animal and vegetable 

 is electrical in character, as I shall show. Secondly, What 

 is it that enables the newly-born child to begin a life that 

 is independent of the mother ? It is the act of breathing. 

 Only at birth is circulation completed through the lungs. 

 Before they were required to take in oxygen, to sustain life 

 and render the young body independent of the mother, 

 there was no need for its blood to circulate through the lungs 

 for that would have meant separate life before birth and 

 would be as unusual if not as unnatural as the germination 

 of a seed while still attached to the parent plant, although 

 an instance of this has been noted by Strasburger ; the 

 seed of mangrove trees, Rhizophora and Bruguiera germinat- 

 ing in the fruit before it is detached from the tree. When 

 the radicle has attained a considerable length, the young 

 seedling, separating either from the cotyledons or from the 



