150 SYMBIOGENESIS 



important function of fertilisation. The transmutation begun 

 by nutritional amphimixis merely receives definite, specific 

 and enhanced expression through that elan which accompanies 

 fertilisation. The transmutation is thus also carried one step 

 further by sexual reproduction, which by effort calls forth the 

 highest form of symbiosis (viz., internal co-operation) that a 

 species is capable of, and this in turn is only possible with 

 these highest forms of specific symbiosis, as w r e have seen in 

 the case of plantagens. 



Continuing the metaphor, we may say that the alchemy 

 of life is constantly endeavouring to synthetise the existing 

 biological elements or substances into higher forms, producing 

 a kind of transmutation of these elements similar to the trans- 

 mutation of the baser into noble chemical elements, and 

 similar also to the transmutation of forces (and materials) 

 produced by the photosynthetic activities (" work ") of the 

 green plant. Given the maximum of required stimulation in 

 any direction particularly in the symbiotic direction, as so 

 ideally provided by the processes of sexual reproduction and of 

 fertilisation and alchemical " reaction " is set up and a 

 transmutation of substances results. This may be either pro- 

 gressive or degenerate. These biological products, higher and 

 lower, in circulation in the organic world are, too, subject to a 

 law like that of Gresham in currency whereby the lower will, 

 under certain conditions, drive out the higher form. 

 Biological " gold " (suddenly, so it seems) appears in the place 

 of silver, or, in the alternative, a retrogression supervenes 

 when the higher currency, in obedience to an eternal 

 antagonism, has to give way to a less noble one. 



The part played in these developments by Bio-Chemistry 

 and Bio-Dynamics is, as we have seen, determined by 

 Bio-Economics, and the three factors together may be said to 

 make up the complex of agencies which maintain the alchemy 

 of life. If it is a case of bad currency driving out the good 

 (i.e., retrogressive evolution), the disruption and sundering of 

 gymbiotics may be accelerated and thus produce many startling 



