PERSONAL IDENTITY, 101 



so simple, and none which becomes more utterly in- 

 capable of limitation or definition as soon as it is 

 examined closely. 



Finally, Mr. Darwin ("Plants and Animals under 

 Domestication," vol. ii. p. 38, ed. 1875), writes 



" Even with plants multiplied by bulbs, layers, &c., 

 which may in one sense be said to form part of the 

 same individual," &c., &c. ; and again, p. 5 8, " The 

 same rule holds good with plants when propagated by 

 bulbs, offsets, &c., which in one sense still form parts 

 of the same individual," &c. In each of these passages 

 it is plain that the difficulty of separating the person- 

 ality of the offspring from that of the parent plant is 

 present to his mind. Yet, p. 351 of the same volume 

 as above, he tells us that asexual generation "is 

 effected in many ways by the formation of buds of 

 various kinds, and by fissiparous generation, that is, by 

 spontaneous or artificial division." The multiplication 

 of plants by bulbs and layers clearly comes under this 

 head, nor will any essential difference be felt between 

 one kind of asexual generation and another; if, then, 

 the offspring formed by bulbs and layers is in one 

 sense part of the original plant, so also, it would 

 appear, is all offspring developed by asexual generation 

 in its manifold phrases. 



If we now turn to p. 357, we find the conclusion 

 arrived at, as it would appear, on the most satisfactory 

 evidence, that "sexual and asexual reproduction are 

 not seen to differ essentially; and .... that 

 asexual reproduction, the power of regrowth, and 

 development are all parts of one and the same great 



