SYMBIOSIS 25 



independence of the comparatively savage life for the restraint 

 but eventual higher freedom, security and success of the 

 social life which causes the division of plantagens into neuters 

 or males and females ; and it is, on the other hand, the neces- 

 sity of bio-economic symbiosis that causes species as a whole to 

 persist in their main course equally one of adaptation to 

 higher needs and equally deriving its glory from subservience 

 to higher ends. Prof. Klebs states with particular emphasis 

 that " it is characteristic of a species that it always exhibits a 

 constant relation to a particular environment." The inter- 

 pretation now becomes easy in the light of our bio-economic 

 principle requiring specialisation and reliable character* from 

 all organisms for purposes of work, symbiosis, and symbio- 

 genesis. Although the same eminent experimentalist states 

 that the discovery of the internal processes of the cell produced 

 by external factors has yet to be made, yet we can gauge from 

 his own results that experimental morphology is already calcu- 

 lated to support the symbiogenetic view here put forward for 

 the first time. He states: "When a bud is produced on a 

 particular part of a plant, it undergoes definite internal 

 modifications induced by influences of other organs, the 

 activity of which is governed by the environment, and as a 

 result of this it develops in a certain direction; it may, for 

 instance, become a flower." (Italics mine.) Clearly the 

 success of the bud depends in part on the degree of domestic 

 and in part on that of biological symbiosis, both of which, of 

 course, stand in close interaction. 



The same writer points out that "experiments show that 

 in certain cases, if the efficiency qf roots and leaves as organs 

 concerned with nutrition is interfered with, the production of 

 flowers is affected, and their characters, which are normally 

 very constant, undergo far-reaching modifications. . . ." 

 He also states that as regards flowering-plants, in the case of 



* "Character," says Huxley, "is the sum of tendencies to act in a certain way 

 and is often to be traced through a long series of progenitors and collaterals. 



