Mar. 1901.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUKGH 67 



system — an aggregate of parts living in common, but very 

 distinct in their character. If new individuals be intro- 

 duced into such a system, the symbiotic equilibrium will 

 be disturbed, and may be destroyed, and this probability of 

 disturbance or destruction will be the greater the more 

 unlike the introduced individuals are to the originals 

 which they replace. This affords an explanation of the 

 phenomena of fertilisation and hybridisation. 



Every symbiotic system of biomorcs is a biomonad. 

 The liiomonad may be complete, able to regenerate itself 

 in whole or part, e.g. the fertilised egg : or incomplete, e.g. 

 unfertilised egg and spermatozoid. The cell is a biomonad 

 characterised by the possession of biomores of special 

 chemical nature : — Kargoplasm (biomores of nucleus) ; 

 Archoplasm (biomores of centrosphere) ; Cytoplasm (biomores 

 of cell body), and it is by the symbiosis of these that cell 

 life is possiljle. 



Not any one of these parts is more indispensable than 

 the others ; if any one be removed, the symbiotic 

 equilibrium is disturbed, or it may be even destroyed. 

 The cell may live, but it will have lost its vital pote7itialitr/, 

 i.e. power to regenerate itself. The same is true of 

 biomore and biomolecule also. 



The parts of the cell derive their importance not on 

 account of their morphological structure, their method of 

 aggregation, but because of their chemical constitution, 

 " the parts of the cell really indispensable for life are those 

 which constitute the bioplasma (i.e. the biomores), and the 

 interbiomoric fluid. Whatever be the disposition and 

 nature of the biomores, whatever be the form that these 

 biomores may produce by their aggregation in the cell, it 

 will always be indispensable for cell life that the biomores 

 constitute a symbiotic system, and that there exist an 

 interbiomoric fluid whence they can extract their nutritive 

 substances." " The life of the cell is the sum of the lives 

 of its biomores " ; and the biomores are incapable of 

 independent life if isolated from each other, just as a cell 

 of a multicellular organism is when isolated from its 

 neighbours, because when isolated it fails to find the 

 necessary condition of existence, which are fully realised 

 in the ensemble of the organism. 



