80 Traces of Unity 



archetype is present in the body and in every append i- 

 cular organ belonging to it ; and this archetype is so 

 closely related to that which pervades every part of the 

 plant, that what holds good of the plant may very fairly 

 be supposed to hold good of the animal also. After 

 what has been said, indeed, there is really nothing in- 

 trinsically improbable in the notion that the different 

 layers of the vertebral and annellar zone may bud out at 

 certain points into rudimentary organs, nerve-ganglia, 

 hearts, " bodies " of vertebrae, and the like, as the case 

 may be, and that the commissural connections of 

 various sorts between these organs may actually corre- 

 spond to the bud-roots which connect the buds with the 

 central woody system of the melocactus. Nay the notion 

 may be looked upon as a natural inference from the pre- 

 mises, for if there be a common archetypal plan for the 

 central and appendicular parts of plants and animals it 

 follows that each of these parts has that in it which is 

 potentially a root. 



And if this be so if, that is, the bud-roots of the 

 melocactus supply the key to the interpretation of the 

 commissural connections in animal bodies then the dis- 

 tinction between plant and animal breaks down in 

 another very important particular, and little remains to 

 hinder anyone from coming to the conclusion that there 

 is one and the same archetypal plan in plants and 

 animals. Indeed, the only hindrance of any moment 

 that remains the apparent absence of a visceral system 

 in the plant is one that may soon be disposed of. 



An intelligible idea of the visceral system of animal 

 bodies is easily attainable. The simplest manifestation 

 of this system is that which is met with in the hydro- 

 zoic polypes a simple sac scooped out in the substance 

 of the body, with a single opening which is at once 



