54 



The e Ur-pflanze ' or ideal type-vegetable with which 

 the e Morphologic ' of Goethe is illustrated (pi. iii. of the 

 French translation) is an aggregate of modifications of the 

 primitive type, not the fundamental pattern-plant itself. 

 My idea of such, from the analogy of the typical vertebra 

 or vertebrate skeleton*, is attempted to be expressed by 

 the more simple forms associated together in the Frontis- 

 piece, fig. 1, and the nature of the association of the 

 more or less modified individual plants is illustrated by 

 the accompanying figures from the animal kingdom. The 

 archetypal form of plant (phyton) nowhere perhaps exists in 

 actual nature, but is presented under various modifications 

 adapted to different conditions arid functions, and devia- 

 ting from the archetype as those functions become exalted. 

 The most familiar, if not the commonest form of the indi- 

 vidual plant, is the leaf, and it is sometimes cited as the 

 archetypal form. In the specimens of Bryophyllum from 

 the Physiological Series of the Museum (Nos. 2225 A & B), 

 you may perceive the manifestation of the power of re- 

 producing other individuals by the buds which have been 

 developed from the angles of the marginal crenations of the 

 leaf: in No. 2225 C. the buds have developed individuals 

 having the same form as the parent, viz. the leaf, and they 

 have sent down an organ for independent nutriment called 

 ( root/ I long ago pointed out in our Physiological Cata- 

 logue (vol. iv. p. 8), with regard to those very specimens, 

 how characteristic of the leaf-individuals which enjoy un- 

 usual power of gemmiparous reproduction it was to retain 

 much of the primitive cellular structure. 



The leaf, however, chiefly energises in the respiratory 

 function, with which also a nutrient power is combined, 

 since carbon is absorbed : with the leaf is connected that 

 slender chain of sap-vessels and air-tubes which is con- 

 tinued from its petiole down to the root, and forms part of 

 the same individual with the leaf: and the aggregate of 

 * On the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton, 

 pi. 2, 8vo, Van Voorst, 1847- 



