CHAPTER VI. 



THE RHYTHMS OB OSCILLATIONS OF GROWTH IN THE DEVELOP- 

 MENT OF TREES ARE DURABLY IMPRESSED ON THEIR ORGANISM, 

 AND THE ORGANIZATION OF MAN IS EQUALLY AS SUSCEPTIBLE 

 OF RECEIVING AND RETAINING IMPRESSIONS FROM WITHOUT. 



In the consideration of a tree, we have to deal, not with a 

 product of crystallization, such as the lead tree, or the dendritic 

 formations on a frozen window, but with matter living and 

 organized. Now, although it may be difficult to point out the 

 bounding line between the animal and vegetable kingdom, 

 because a decided characteristic distinction between the animal 

 and vegetable cell is wanted, yet the limit between living and 

 lifeless Nature is easily defined. In living Nature, THE CELL 

 predominates as the fundamental organ ; its absence character- 

 izes the lifeless creation, whose fundamental form is THE 



CRYSTAL. 



The crystal grows by additions of matter to its surface ; the 

 cell grows from within, and not from without. The crystal, 

 throughout its entire mass, consists of the same chemical prin- 

 ciples, arranged in the same manner, and in the same proportions; 

 but the walls of the cell and its fluid contents are chemically 

 different from each other. The parts of the crystal, held 

 together by the power of mutual attraction, remain at rest, side 

 by side, without exercising any reciprocal influence on each 

 other ; but the cells of plants, which united together form their 

 tissues, or the solid substance of their organs, act and react 

 upon each other and upon the sap as it passes through them. 

 Cell and crystal cannot therefore be compared with one another ; 

 for the cell lives, but the crystal is dead. The celebrated 

 Naturalist Linnaeus, thus expresses himself in his Philosophical 

 Botany. "Stones grow. Vegetables grow and live. Animals 



