PLANT-LIFEGENERATION. 261 



influence the conjunction of vegetation in a 

 given territory. As there are diverse societies 

 of men, so there are diverse societies of 

 Plants, which fact has given rise to a new 

 branch of botanical science known as ecology. 

 Water will produce one kind of plant-town 

 (Hydrophytes), dry land another (Xero- 

 phytes), and so on. The swamp, the forest, 

 the meadow have each its own vegetal com- 

 munity, which is composed of many sorts of 

 individuals. 



But the supreme association of Plants is 

 to grasp them as a whole, evolving in all -their 

 variety and gradation after their common 

 underlying norm, which can best be seen in 

 the evolutionary line of the total Generation 

 of Plant-life. It may be said that the entire 

 vegetal world has now flowered and seeded, 

 and thus come to its fulfilment. It has vital- 

 ized the Cosmos and the Diacosmos, convert- 

 ing them into the Biocosmos, at the first life- 

 stage thereof. But all along we have seen the 

 Plant as purposive, as striving toward an end 

 beyond itself. It shows itself finally as means 

 for something higher, which is witnessed 

 when the animal takes it as food and thus 

 brings it to fulfil its destiny. Accordingly 

 the animal in its origin and evolution begins 

 to dawn upon our vision. But this throws us 

 back to the starting-point, to that original bi- 



