PLANT-LIFEGENERATION. 249 



division of Plants the vascular Cormo- 

 phytes (or the corm-plants). It may be here 

 added that the corm in its present sense is 

 an explication and fulfilment of the thallus 

 which is the first stage already considered; 

 to this we may conceive it as a return, which 

 is also an unfolding of it to its purposive end; 

 that is, the corm realizes and fixes to per- 

 sistence the many fleeting intimations of 

 stem, root and leaf, which are found scatter- 

 ed through the numerous varieties of the 

 thallus. In fact Nature has everywhere these 

 prophetic hints, and the whole of it is one 

 great prophecy of the completed Psyche : such 

 is truly its poetic side. 



The word corm in the foregoing sense was 

 first employed by Endlicher, though it had 

 been used previously in Botany with a differ- 

 ent meaning. In Greek it signifies literally 

 a stem, with branches and roots lopped off, 

 which therefore belong to it naturally. The 

 term with its group is approved by the fa- 

 mous German botanist and writer, Professor 

 Strasburger of Bonn, in his text treating 

 of general morphology, but is strangely 

 omitted by him in the place where it is most 

 needed, namely in the systematic ordering of 

 the Plant-world. A puzzling omission, yea 

 inconsistency of the le'arned scientist, but not 

 unparalleled. The demarkation of this su- 



