2o8 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



tant part in the architecture of plant life, fig. 2, but 

 animal life makes different usage of them. 



In any case, the jelly-fish, and all others of their class 

 (at one time the super-animals of the organic world) 

 are upbuilt on this so-called radial plan, with a com- 

 mon central opening for intake and discharge, and 

 with multiple structural elements appearing accord- 

 ing to definite laws along radial lines, like spokes to a 

 wheel, or in circumferential lines and zones, like the 

 hoops and staves to a barrel. 



Thousands of species of jelly-fish have been pro- 

 duced, differing among themselves in a great variety 

 of minor ways, but all of them have this relatively 

 simple organization, and still have their organs ar- 

 ranged on this radial and concentric zone plan. 



It is highly significant that whilst the radial type 

 of multi-cellular growth was among the very first 

 to appear, and was evolved many millions of years ago, 

 it has never produced any known animal, retaining this 

 plan of structure and method of growth, more highly 

 organized than a polyp, or colony of polyps. This 

 certainly cannot be due to lack of time, nor environ- 

 ment, nor opportunity, for in a very much shorter time, 

 and in much the same kinds of external environments, 

 all the higher forms of animal life, such as crabs, mol- 

 luscs, fishes, and mammals, have been evolved. 



While the mere association of cells is a wonderfully 

 creative process, it is clear that there must be some in- 

 herent conditions in the radial method of growth which 

 prohibit the attainment of the higher possibilities of 

 life; and that all the agencies of time, environment, 

 natural selection, and heredity have been powerless 

 against them. 



