Dr. A. Braim on the Vegetable Individual. 241 



Engelmann*, Steinheilf and GaiiclichaudJ — the last of whom 

 calls the member of the shoot elevated to the rank of an indi- 

 vidual vegetable being, " the phyton/' and ascribes to it not only 

 a stem and leaves, but even a root, by which he imagines it is 

 connected vnih the preceding phytons, as the first phyton (the 

 cmbrj^onic plant) is connected with the ground. Steenstrup § 

 and Forbes || employ a similar view for their comparison of 

 alternate generation in plants with that in the lower animals. 



But this restriction of vegetable individuality could not stop 

 here ; for even the members of the shoot, the " phyta " or " sto- 

 ries/' are themselves too complex organisms not to present sub- 

 ordinate divisions, which, like the whole member, possess a cer- 

 tain independence, and under certain circumstances may even 

 give birth to new stocks. Although botanists have attempted 

 to view the petiole as the lower part of the leaf ^, or vice versa, 

 the leaf as the upper part of the petiole** (so as not to be com- 

 pelled to divide the phytons of the structure themselves into re- 

 latively independent members), this nmch at least is certain (and 

 it is the important point here), that each of these two parts is 

 capable of producing new growths by itself; yes, this capacity is 

 enjoyed even by different determinate or casual parts of either 

 member. It is well known that the leaf of Brijophijlhim produces 

 sprouts in every notch on its edges, while on the other hand, 

 caducous leaves of many bulbous plants {e. g. Eucomis regia 

 according to Hedwig, Ornithogalum thyrsuides according to Tur- 

 pinft) produce new plants in the form of bulblets on any portion 

 of the whole of the upper surface. The petiole itself under cer- 

 tain circumstances has the power of producing the so-called ad- 

 ventitious buds, not only on the portions determined by the po- 

 sition of the leaf (leaf-axil), but sometimes on any other portions ; 

 a power enjoyed by the root in many cases. Hence parts of 

 plants, otherwise most dissimilar, when they contain cambium, 



* Engelraann, De Antholysi (1832), p. 12. 



t Steinheil, L'lndividualite dans le Regne vegetale. 1836. 



X Gaudichavid, Recherches sur I'Organographie, la Physiologic et I'Or- 

 ganogenie des Vegetaux. 1841. 



^ Steensti-up, On Alternate Generation (1842), p. 128. As this im- 

 portant little work may be sujjposed to be in every one's hands, I refrain 

 fi'om quoting tliis interesting passage. 



II Forbes, On the Morphology of the Reproductive System of Sertu- 

 larian Zoophytes, &c., Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. xiv. (1844), p. 385. 



^ Ernst Mayer, Die Metamorphose der Pflanze und ihre Widcrsacher. 

 Limiica, 1832, "p. 401. 



** Hochstetter, Aufbau dcr Graspflanze. (Wiiitembergcr Jahreshcfte. 

 1847 and 1848.) 



tt Cf. Treviranus, Pflanzenphysiologic, where several examples are ad- 

 duced. 



