PLANT-LIFEGENERATION. 229 



which is the first appearance of the Plant in 

 its Form or outer manifestation. Thus the 

 vegetal cycle is completed, the last Process 

 goes back to the first and reproduces that. 

 The physical reality of this round can be 

 noted in the seed which on the one hand is 

 the final outcome of the Generation, but on 

 the other is the starting point of the Forma- 

 tion of the individual Plant. The seed in its 

 round thus shows the vegetal organism re- 

 turning into itself through its three main 

 Processes (Formation, Assimilation, Gener- 

 ation), and thereby completing its cycle of 

 life. Both have something very significant in 

 common: the Plant-child receives from its 

 Plant-parent the ability to make that same 

 vegetal round in about the same time, start- 

 ing and ending in the seed. Such a power is, 

 therefore, continuous and persists, being su- 

 preme over the rise, bloom, and cessation of 

 the individual Plant, and therein suggesting 

 a limited immortality. 



The thought also should be dwelt upon that 

 there is a recurrence of the same Plant-form 

 in the main, or of the ideal model after which 

 the organism seems to shape itself. We may 

 conceive it as the universal or creative type 

 of the Plant, which is always individualizing 

 itself in the special instances; it has been 

 named the idea matrix of all members of the 



