PLANT-LIFEGENERATION. 231 



and fails not in reproductive power. The an- 

 imal is different, being more internally direct- 

 ed, not growing into old-age by outward addi- 

 tions of youth to his senile body. 



Analogies between Plant and Animal have 

 been often drawn. Oken deemed the brain 

 of the Plant to be the flower with head erect 

 in the air. Others have maintained that the 

 vegetal head was rooted in the soil where Was 

 the mouth taking its food and drink. Really, 

 however, it is contrary to the nature of the 

 Plant to have a central brain in control ; rath- 

 er each part or organ has its center and can 

 become the total Plant. Interesting is the 

 comparison of the sexual division of the one 

 flower into stamen and pistil to the Ego sep- 

 arating itself into subject and object which 

 reunite. A kind of outer self is thus the Gen- 

 erative Process of the Plant, as the Process 

 of the Ego is generative of the new thought. 

 Undoubtedly there is a psychical side in the 

 Plant, as there is everywhere in Life, and 

 also in Nature. The ideal continuity of the 

 vegetal type is in me, or subjective ; but it is 

 also in the Plant or objective; if it were not 

 mine too, I could not know it. My Psyche is 

 what communes with and recognizes the 

 Psyche of Nature. 



The Plant, since it is quite autonomous in 

 its organs and thus relatively multicentral, 



