260 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 



of producing a leaf; but the direct consequence is by no means 

 so generally acknowledged, that for that very reason the woody 

 stem cannot come under the idea of plant. Much confusion 

 has arisen in our physiology from the error of regarding the 

 tree as a sing J e plant, the ideal definition of root, stem, bud, 

 &c. have become very vague, and bitter controversies have 

 been carried on with respect to the functions of these parts, 

 which could have no result, because the one party spoke of 

 this, the other of that, this one of the stalk, the other of the 

 stem, this of root-fibrils, that of ligneous root-substance. 



The so-called lignified root is, however, just as little a root, 

 as the lignified stem is still a stalk, but both together form an 

 inseparable, and, moreover, altogether purely accidental organ 

 for the plant, which has secreted the annual individual upon its 

 surface, in order to bring into connexion, by means of a single 

 organized membrane, the whole sum of the newly formed 

 young individuals. The tree corresponds precisely to the 

 polypidom, and it appears to me to be as unsound to set out 

 from it as the type in plants, as it would be for the zoologist 

 to take a Gorgonia as the ideal of animal individuality. This 

 analogy, however, is in no way weakened by the circumstance, 

 that we meet with this woody stem most frequently in precisely 

 the highest developed plants ; but, on the contrary, it is natural 

 that, if the animal kingdom in a certain measure receive the 

 vegetative part of its character from the vegetable kingdom, 

 this should connect itself by the lowest stage of animals to the 

 highest plants, whilst even this vegetative half of the vital phe- 

 nomena in the higher animals is in like manner purified and 

 ennobled by its individuality constantly gaining in independence. 



With this explanation of the woody stem (the root included), 

 it will henceforward appear by no means remarkable that this 

 organ (as if it were a mere organized, soil) can generate upon 

 every part of its surface young vegetable individuals j that is, 

 buds, so soon as it is in a condition to convey nutritive material 

 to those buds from any part, whether it correspond apparently 

 to the former root or to the stem ; while this refined idea of 

 the plant conducts to the law, that in the regular course of 

 vegetation, neither root nor internode, but only the axilla of 

 the leaf, is capable of generating a bud, i. e., a new axis with 

 lateral organs. 



