202 THE BIOCOSMOS PARTICULARIZED. 



outstrips the Plant, chiefly because it has 

 shown the power of evolving a distinctly reg- 

 nant form, the human. The vegetable line 

 also shows in general an upward evolution; 

 the so-called Cryptogam (a designation often 

 discarded today but still useful) is manifestly 

 a lower organism than the Phanerogam or 

 the flowering plant. But what genus among 

 Phanerogams corresponds in the Plant world 

 to the genus homo in the Animal world? If 

 we take size as criterion, shall it be the bao- 

 bab of Madagascar, the banyan of India, or 

 the sequoia of California? Hardly; by the 

 same test the elephant might be throned as the 

 supreme animal instead of man. The total 

 tree of Plant-life seems not to top out in 

 what is most excellent of its own, as does the 

 corresponding tree of Animal life. The line 

 of evolution through Nature into Self-con- 

 sciousness toward the All-Self, does not pass 

 by way of the Plant, which seems, after reach- 

 ing a certain stage, to break off and scatter. 

 The fact corresponds to the character of 

 the Plant which lacks concentration. Each 

 vegetal part or region is endowed with a kind 

 of autonomy, which will not permit a com- 

 pletely centralized authority like that of the 

 higher animal. The Plant Organism has no true 

 head, as there is in it no true headship. In 

 like manner it has no central stomach, as each 



