2 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



of a given species, which are and will be developed, were all 

 contained in one another, and all in the first which existed. 



These two contradictory theories are so vast, that 

 they seem to contain all the opinions of which the 

 subject is susceptible, and, consequently, one of the 

 two must be true. However, if we reflect, one is almost 

 as unintelligible as the other; for — 1st, on the one 

 hand, nothing among known facts can make us compre- 

 hend the creation of a germ, since we never see anything 

 more in the Inorganic Kingdom than transformation of 

 compositions ; and, in the Organic, than developments ; 

 and, 2d — Nothing can make us conceive, either in 

 imagination, or in reason, an indefinite insertion of pre- 

 existing beings. 



If we separate these questions, which are more meta- 

 physical than physical, and limit ourselves to general 

 facts, we shall see that an insertion, (if this idea be not 

 extended too far,) is proved by evident examples, as in 

 Volvox. We shall perceive, 2d, that the germs, or rudi- 

 mentary beings, are often visible a long time before their 

 ordinary appearance ; as, for example, when we find in the 

 centre of the trunks of palms the floral scapes which would 

 be developed externally after several years. 3d. We 

 shall be obliged to acknowledge that all beings are deve- 

 loped, as if their nutritive matter, deposited in an 

 invisible and pre-existing receptacle, had its place, thus 

 to speak, fixed before hand. 



Thus, whether the expression of Germ be taken either 

 as a reality, or as an image, it will serve equally well to 

 describe the origin of organized beings. In the two 

 hypotheses, these germs arise from certain organs ; in 

 the theory of Plastic Forces they are formed by them, in 

 that of the pre-existence of germs they are simply 

 nourished and developed by their action. Whichever it 

 be, they are presented in plants in two different states ; 

 either they are dispo ed in such a manner as to be 



