NEW PLUMS AND PRUNES 159 



There are far more bricks (atoms) available 

 to build each different type of germ plasm in our 

 plum bud colony than are required to build the 

 largest structure in the man-made city. 



The real wonder, as I said before, lies in the 

 fact that each infinitesimal aggregation of mole- 

 cules of protoplasm has the capacity to take to 

 itself stray atoms that are brought into its neigh- 

 borhood, shape them into its own structure, 

 somewhat as a bricklayer shapes the bricks into 

 the walls of a building, and thus increase con- 

 stantly in size. 



It is this capacity of the germ plasm to gather 

 material and utilize it in expanding its structure 

 together with the further capacity to move in 

 response to environing forces that is the under- 

 lying mystery of the entire life process, includ- 

 ing the interesting aspects of it that we see 

 manifested through heredity. 



In a word, a fruit bud is a walled city ten- 

 anted with a multitude of complex structures, 

 and the mere size of the bud, in our clarified 

 view, has nothing whatever to do with the won- 

 der of its composite architecture. 



The phenomena of the germ cell have hither- 

 to appeared peculiarly mysterious simply be- 

 cause our blunt human senses deal ordinarily 

 with masses of matter of a more tangible size. 



