230 THE BIOCOSMOS PARTICULARIZED. 



same species (or better, genus, which is con- 

 nected with genesis, generation, etc., in that 

 primordial Aryan root gen to beget). When 

 we say that a certain Plant belongs to this or 

 that species, there hovers before us doubtless 

 vaguely the ideal norm thereof, to which we 

 mentally compare it and under which we sub- 

 sume it. Instinctively we seek for this gen- 

 etic archetype which manifests itself in indi- 

 vidual Plants and orders them, being the true 

 source of classification. Species are indeed 

 many and the Plant-norm has diversified it- 

 self prodigiously in the past ages; still it is 

 relatively the persistent principle in the veg- 

 etal organism, though it too be subject to a 

 gradual evolution. 



With the development of its Generative 

 Process, the Plant stops its growing outward, 

 and turns back inward upon itself as it were, 

 and rounds out its total growth into the seed 

 which contains potentially the whole Plant, 

 concentrating the latter 's previous forthright 

 energy toward special parts and projecting 

 the same into a new entire individual. It is 

 true that the old Plant, after a period of rest 

 and recuperation, will start again its growth 

 by accretion, for that is the vegetal character. 

 The oldest tree continues adding its annual 

 layer of new sapwood; it never gets its 

 growth, it always remains young in a part, 



