232 SYMBIOGENESIS 



other equally important factors, and does not conduce, 

 therefore, to a balanced view of life. Wonderful though 

 it is what a simple plant can perform bio-chemically, it is 

 still more wonderful what it normally achieves bio- 

 economically, i.e., symbiogenetically, by its "work" in 

 virtue of which it enjoys a kind of general sovereignty over 

 properly constituted, i.e., crystalloid inorganic matter. 



This, of course, is far better illustrated by the case of the 

 strenuous and clearly progressive (cross-feeding) plants than 

 by that of a unicellular plant of suspect history and doubtful 

 position in symbiogenetic evolution.* 



We have seen, as exemplified by the case of the endosperm 

 of Indian corn and fruits in general, that "love-foods," over 

 and above their vitamine endowment, are characterised by an 

 extraordinary degree of " livingness," in virtue of their 

 symbiogenetic mode of origin, or, as we might also say, in 

 virtue of the biological impress they bear. If they are 

 specially "organised," it is that in their production the 

 biological factor has been more specially at work. If they 

 are specially efficient, it is that a most concentrated symbio- 

 genetic process the " alchemy " of fertilisation (and what 

 it entails in previous efforts) has been instrumental in their 

 production. 



When so much is thus everywhere due to the biological 

 (" personal ") factor, the proposition that the crystalloid world 

 is instrumental in the evolution of certain animal senses almost 

 requires the postulate of a considerable degree of "livingness " 

 in the crystal, which postulate Prof. Lehmann's researches, 

 and many others on the subject of crystallinity, would indeed 

 seem to necessitate. 



The further inference from such considerations is that we 



* The yeast, of course, belongs to the vast group of the Fungi, the frequent 

 degeneration of which we have already considered. Although the physiology of 

 the fungus-cell is not fundamentally different from that of ordinary plant-cells, 

 it is deficient in that most important function of photosynthesis, and, consequently, 

 as we have already seen, saprophytism and parasitism are especially pronounced 

 amongst Fungi. To what an extent the yeast must be considered as a degraded 

 form, has not yet been definitely determined. 



