45 



respiratory and generative organs, comparable to those in 

 a complex animal. But the true test of any opinion as to 

 the sex of a gemmiparous larva can only be applied and 

 appreciated by the physiologist who has learnt to view the 

 relations of the plant to the animal in the spirit of John 

 Hunter*. If the budding polype be analogous to the leaf 

 and leaf-bud on the one hand and to the larviparous Aphis 

 on the other, if these be severally examples of true gemmi- 

 parous individuals differing only in the scale of their com- 

 plexity, then the analogy of the Aphis would justify the 

 opinion that the budding polype is essentially female. And 

 if it can be proved that the growth by cell-multiplication 

 producing a bud, instead of being ' altogether distinct from 9 

 the growth by cell-multiplication in an egg, is essentially 

 the same kind of growth or developmental process, that 

 same analogy will furnish the botanist with a reason that 

 he perhaps had not before, for viewing a budding plant as 

 essentially ' female/ and for regarding the so-called males 

 of the Palms and other Linnaean Dicecia, plants which 

 terminate their series of successive gemmations by ela- 

 borating the true male individuals or ( stamens/ as stem- 

 bound aggregates of female gemmiparous individuals in 

 the form of leaves and buds ; and these, by the light of 

 zoological analogy, may be viewed as ( larvae' in comparison 

 with the more advanced and more individualized stamens 

 or males associated with them. 



The green petiolate discoid ' gemmae ' of the Liverwort 

 (Marchantia polymorphd), which are detached whilst in the 

 condition of a mere aggregate of cells in an envelope, the 



* " In the vegetable this power or mode of propagation arises from 

 two principles ; one is that every part of a vegetable is a whole ; the 

 second arises from some having the power in every part (under certain 

 circumstances) of retaining life, bringing in nourishment at every part, 

 and of producing parts called roots. So that a vegetable under these 

 circumstances is capable always of being multiplied as far as it can be 

 divided into distinct plants." ' Introduction to the Organs of Genera- 

 tion/ Physiological Catalogue of the Hunterian Collection, vol.iv. p. 4. 



