26 SYMBIOGENESIS 



the cells in a growing apex, possessing all the latent possi- 

 bilities of development, "which of these possibilities becomes 

 effective, depends upon the reaction of the external world 

 transmitted through organs concerned with nutrition." 

 (Italics mine.) 



Economic (dynamic) action and reaction in the web of 

 life "carried on" (transmitted) by properly constituted 

 "agents" (organs) "engaged in" (concerned with) the 

 "work" of "production," "distribution," "utilisation," 

 "capitalisation," "consumption" (nutrition), is thus 

 exhibited as the cause of all changing forms and characters. 



Normality and constancy in this inter-play of forces and 

 in the resulting forms and characters (unit or general) are 

 determined by the degree of symbiosis domestic and 

 biological. 



The " asexual " method of propagation so common among 

 plants does not appear to support the conclusion that every 

 somatic cell possesses the full symbiotic potentiality of the 

 species to which it belongs. The asexual is in reality but an 

 inferior sexual method, an inferior sexual symbiosis necessitated 

 by certain conditions of existence. Asexual, like sexual, repro- 

 duction is due to the presence of individuality, though for 

 some reason or other less efficiently co-operative than in the 

 case of sexual reproduction. Because the lower organisms are 

 more loosely compounded of individuals (and for that reason 

 are the " lower") than the higher, it does not follow that the 

 difference between them is other than of degree. The main 

 point is that we have in each case a symbiosis, where all 

 participants have their respective duties to perform (have to 

 give of themselves in some shape or form). Some give as 

 neuters satisfied with asexual propagation, others when a 

 higher degree of symbiosis is reached as proper sex 

 individuals. 



In the sexual reproduction of plants some of the 

 plantagens, in one stage of their existence, appear as flower- 



