Dr. xV. Braim on the Vegetable Individual, 235 



successive relative forms through which the individual passes. 

 For the organic individual does not manifest itself in one single 

 permanent form, but in a succession of forms, now gradually 

 connected, now broadly interrupted ; and these last, especially 

 in plants, may attain to an independence which gives them the 

 character of a subordinate species. To this analogy between in- 

 dividuals and species it may be objected, that, in most cases, a 

 very remarkable metamorphosis is connected with the successive 

 forms of the individual, while within the sphere of the species 

 the consecutive members continue to have essentially the same 

 character*. But, however important this fact may be, still we 

 may assert of the individual as well as of the species, that it com- 

 pletes the cycle of its existence in a succession of subordinate 

 generations, wdiile, on the other hand, we may affirm of the spe- 

 cies, that, like the individual, it exhibits a determinate cycle of 

 developmentf. In comparing the processes of propagation with 

 the process of the formation of the individual, cell-formation, 

 which lies at the foundation of both, reveals the intimate con- 

 nexion which exists between the small and the great spheres of 

 development ; while the numerous cases which admit of a double 

 explanation (since they may be ascribed with almost equal justice 

 to the inferior cycle of development of the individual, or to the 

 superior one of the species) establish the close relationship of 

 both. The above-mentioned circumstance, that the cycle of de- 

 velopment does not present as graduated a progress in the spe- 

 cies as it does in the individual, seems to suggest that the most 

 reliable view of the analogy between the species and the indi- 

 vidual is that in which the species is not compared wuth the 

 whole cycle of the individual's successive development, but with 

 the single steps of the metamorphosis (which of course has its 

 own subordinate members), and in which the species itself is re- 

 garded as an inferior " momentum " of a still more compre- 

 hensive cycle of development ; but to determine this would lead 

 us too far from our subject J. In a word, the relation of the in- 

 dividual to the species is that of an inferior cycle of development 

 to a superior : the individual is a member of the species. How- 

 ever, although they are under one and the same specific law, all 

 the members of the species are not identical : a single member 

 only represents the idea of the species more or less incompletely ; 

 and certain members, or series of members, are thus reciprocal 



* Those of the forms and properties which persist through the successive 

 generations determine the species. Link, Grundlehren der Kraiiter- 

 kunde, vi. p. 11. 



t The species is an individual of a higher rank (higher power). Link, 

 Z.c. p. 11. 



t Cf. the Author's work on Verjungung (1849), note to p. 344. 



16* 



