THEIR LIFE AND AFFINITY. 235 



account more a whole in itself, hence we know why the plant is from 

 necessity more closely connected with the organism of the earth than 

 the animal ; considered in which point of view, the principal pecu- 

 liarities of vegetable organization are capable of a general explanation. 

 As the first consequence of the above fundamental peculiarity, we 

 have to consider the division of the plant according to the direction 

 of the two principal properties of the terrestrial organism, that is, in 

 its tendency to inward unity (gravitation), and in its relation to the 

 higher natural bodies (light). In this point of view, the plant must 

 be regarded as consisting of two parts, the terrestrial and the aerial, 

 the former consisting of the roots and stem, the latter of the leaves 

 and flowers. From the division, or dualism, thus characterizing the 

 plant, there follows also as a second consequence the want of internal 

 unity in the formation of the plant in its relation to space. Moreover, 

 while we see the animal endowed with different systems of organiza- 

 tion, the one for absorption, assimilation, and secretion \_Stoffwec?isel~\, 

 the other for sensation and motion, and the first system inclosed 

 within the second in the form of intestines; the plant, on the contrary, 

 wants the intestines properly so called, and possesses nothing to cor- 

 respond with the absorbing and assimilating intestines of the animal, 

 but that which we call the root ; so that while the animal, as a unity 

 in relation to space, exists one half within the other, the plant, on the 

 contraiy, as a duality in relation to space, appears one half upon the 

 other. Hence we may moreover infer the original homogeneity of 

 both halves; and this circumstance renders the reversion of their func- 

 tions possible, so that the branch is converted into a root, and the root 

 into branch, leaves, flowers, &c., as is proved by experiment. A third 

 consequence is, that as the union of two points appears as a line, the 

 line is the archetype of the plant ; while, on the contrary, (as we shall 

 show hereafter,) the globular form is the archetype of the animal 

 body. The root, being subject to the law of gravitation, strikes down- 

 ward toward the centre of the earth ; the stem, the leaves, and the flowers, 

 on the contrary, follow the light, and rise in the opposite direction, so 

 that the whole represents a perpendicular line. The experiments 

 instituted by Count Buquoi, in order to ascertain the constancy of 

 these directions under unusual external circumstances, are in this 

 respect well worthy of attention *. Seeds were put into a layer of 

 mould lying loose at the top and bottom ; but, though placed closer to 

 the lower surface, instead of growing out of this, they pierced through 

 the far stiffer part of the layer, so as to grow out of its surface. 

 Plants which were set upside down in a flowerpot always bent their 

 flower-stem around the edge of the pot, and grew upwards. A 

 fourth consequence of that fundamental property of the plant is its 



* Skizzcn xu eincm Gcsetxbuche dcr Natur. Leipzig, 1817, p. 315. 



