462 LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. 



pillar-stage into that of chrysalis, is afterwards a week, a 

 fortnight, or a longer period in completing its structure : the 

 re-commencement of genesis being by so much postponed, 

 and the rate of multiplication therefore diminished. Further, 

 that re-arrangement of substance which development implies, 

 entails expenditure. The chrysalis loses weight in the course 

 of its transformation; and that its loss is not loss of water 

 only, may be inferred from the fact that it respires, and that 

 respiration indicates consumption. Clearly the matter con 

 sumed is, other things equal, a deduction from the surplus 

 which may go to reproduction. Yet again, the more 



widely and completely an organic mass becomes differentiated, 

 the smaller is the portion of it which retains the relatively- 

 undifferentiated state that admits of being moulded into new 

 individuals, or the germs of them. Protoplasm which has 

 become specialized tissue cannot be generalized afresh, and 

 afterwards transformed into something else; and hence the 

 progress of structure in an organism, by diminishing the 

 unstructured part, diminishes the amount available for mak 

 ing offspring. 



It is true that higher structure, like greater growth, may 

 insure to a species advantages which eventually further its 

 multiplication may give it access to larger supplies of food, 

 or enable it to obtain food more economically; and we shall 

 hereafter see how the inverse variation we are considering is 

 thus qualified. But here we are concerned only with the 

 necessary and direct effects; not with those that are con 

 tingent and remote. These necessary and direct effects we 

 will now look at as exemplified. 



344. Speaking generally, the simpler plants propagate 

 both sexually and asexually; and, speaking comparatively, 

 the complex plants propagate only sexually : their asexual 

 propagation is usually incomplete produces a united aggre 

 gate of individuals instead of numerous distinct individuals. 

 The Protophytes that perpetually subdivide, the merely- 



