XI PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 393 
are called “cuttings”; for example, that by tak- 
ing a cutting from a geranium plant, and rearing 
it properly, by supplying it with light and warmth 
and nourishment from the earth, it grows up and 
takes the form of its parent, having all the pro- 
perties and peculiarities of the original plant. 
Sometimes this process, which the gardener per- 
forms artificially, takes place naturally ; that is to 
say, a little bulb, or portion of the plant, detaches 
itself, drops off, and becomes capable of growing 
as a separate thing. That is the case with many 
bulbous plants, which throw off in this way second- 
ary bulbs, which are lodged in the ground and 
become developed into plants. This is a non-sexual 
‘process, and from it results the repetition or re- 
production of the form of the original being from 
‘which the bulb proceeds. 
_ Among animals the same thing takes place. 
Among the lower forms of animal life, the infusorial 
-animalcule we have already spoken of throw off 
‘certain portions, or break themselves up in various 
‘directions, sometimes transversely or sometimes 
longitudinally; or they may give off buds, which 
detach themselves and develop into their proper 
‘forms. There is the common fresh-water polype, 
for instance, which multiplies itself in this way. 
Just in the same way as the gardener is able to 
taultiply and reproduce the peculiarities and char- 
acters of particular plants by means of cuttings, 
t so can the physiological experimentalist—as was 
“a 
«x 
