Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 375 



are spaclix-polypi, which represent trees by their formation of 

 unessential branches, emitting finally from every branch and 

 from the mitUUc stock a whorl of individuals of the second (and 

 last) degree. Campanularice and Seriularice put forth runners 

 from the bases of the main-individual, which again shoot up 

 and become new main-stems, or new stems emerge out of 

 them ; and perhaps the ramifications of Bucephalus (which 

 according to Steenstrup's supposition is the larva of Aspido- 

 gaster conchila),?.^ represented by Baer in Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. 

 Cur. xiii. 2, belong here. 



In our qualitative comparison of shoots, it was shown how 

 the shoot may be limited to a few leaves, or even to a single 

 one ; in like manner the animal individual, in the division of 

 role which occurs in alternation of generation, may become the 

 representative of one single organ, of one single function. 

 Thus the females of Coryne squamata are hardly anything more 

 than egg-stocks, and the males than sperm-stocks*. The mem- 

 bers of the Tape-xi'orm, which are so many individuals of the final 

 generation, hardly represent anything more than hei'maphrodite 

 sexual apparatus. As an analogous example in the vegetable 

 kingdom perhaps the Willow^ maybe compared to the Coryne; 

 here too the shoots of the last degree are nothing but naked 

 unisexual apparatus of reproduction. In PotamogetonX, on the 

 contrary, they are hermaphrodite, as in the Tape-worm. The 

 construction of many of the lower animals, which when con- 

 sidered as individual animals seem to be the strangest monsters, 

 becomes more intelligible as soon as they are regarded from this 

 point of view, — as soon as we make up our minds to regard the 

 supposed individuals as a family stock, and its parts (formerly 

 held to be mere organs, and which, physiologically considered, 

 are really nothing more) as individuals. In particular this is 

 true of Fhysophora, Step/ianomia and Agalmopjsis. 



In many cases we find alternation of generation connected 

 with division of generation, that is, the appearance of hetero- 

 geneous individuals in one and the same generation. Just as is 

 the case in animal and vegetable forms without alternation of 

 generation, so, where it is connected with alternation of gene- 

 ration, division of generation relates principally to the sexual 

 functions; and a glance at the animal kingdom shows us rela- 

 tions of alternation of generation complicated by division per- 



* Hence Rathke rcf^ards the male individuals as mere testicles. Cf. 

 Wiegm. Archiv, 1844, p. 155, and Steenstnip, Ilermaphr. tab. 1. f. 17-20. 



t The two stamens in the Willow, and the floiiferous bud as well, are 

 preceded by only two very small bracts, which grow together and form a 

 little scale. 



X The flowers of Potamogeton are branches which beai- only stamens 

 and carpels. 



