296 INC RE A SE OF FORMA TIVE PO WER 



new bioplasts are successively exposed. This last view is 

 indeed untenable, because we have abundant evidence of 

 the transmission of peculiar properties and powers, through 

 a vast number of successive units during a considerable 

 period of time, and though sometimes dormant for a while, 

 they are yet at last manifested so distinctly that no doubt 

 could be entertained as to their actual derivation from 

 bioplasm that lived very long before. 



Increase in formative and constructive capacity seems 

 to be associated with very limited change in bioplasm, 

 while rapid change increased vital action seems to be 

 invariably connected with decadence in power. Formative 

 capacity does not depend merely upon free nutrient supply, 

 nor indeed is the degree of formative power affected by 

 nutrition. The formative capacity of a seed or a bud, it 

 need scarcely be said, exhibits no relation to the material 

 forces of the matter composing it. How can such phe- 

 nomena be in any way due to the influence oif the ordinary 

 forces associated with lifeless matter ? The results may, for 

 the present at any rate, be attributed to some peculiar 

 power capable of controlling and directing both matter and 

 force. 



These wonderful vital powers slowly acquired, as in the 

 case of the active growing bioplasm of the seed, may be 

 retained intact in many instances for a very long period of 

 time, and it is an interesting question yet to be determined 

 how far the retention of these powers is dependent upon 

 slow but constant changes. The life of the seed is, like all 

 life, limited in duration. It may be greatly prolonged 

 under certain circumstances ; but in every case there is a 

 limit to the duration of its life. All seeds die; but the 



