198 Chapters in Modern Botany chap. 



are here the prickles. Ti'ue^ however, is here an unsatis- 

 factory and only half-true term ; in this contrast between 

 form and function we have at the earlier planes of evolution 

 what in our own plane we recognise so constantly as the 

 difficulty between law and equity, letter and spirit. De jure 

 it is the prickles which are the leaves, since historically 

 and formally they represent them ; no matter though de 

 facto the stems have long ago taken up their whole 

 functions. In the same way the Merovingians are kings 

 de jtirc^ long after their mayors are kings de facto. Here, 

 in fact, we have a curious result, carrying with it a fresh 

 result upon the theories of education ; for the student may 

 easily think out for himself the way in which we may either 

 start from the one side or the other. That the "type 

 system of teaching," with its precedence of anatomy over 

 physiology, is no mere survival of the authority of Cuvier, 

 but is in a piece with the antique academic programmes 

 generally, he will now more clearly see ; as further, that 

 the "life-history" (as distinguished from "form-description," 

 or even " form-history ") system of teaching here advocated, 

 with its precedence of physiology before anatomy, while 

 in the first place an attempt at utilising the method of 

 Darwin in biological teaching, is congruent with those wider 

 changes in education now happily germinating everywhere, 

 and of which this University Extension movement, with its 

 published volumes, its enlarging summer meetings, may 

 claim to be one of the largest seedfields. 



Returning, however, to pure morphology, although no 

 outline can here be given, some notice must be taken of 

 that generalised conception which has been prepared for in 

 the preceding paragraph, since it is the most characteristic, 

 or at least the best-known, result of the science. 



We have seen that the young flowering -plant — the 

 seedling — consists of an upward-growing axis or stem and 



