VIII 



FORMS OF LIFE 



Morphology — Laws of symmetry — Fundamental forms of 

 animals and plants — Fundamental forms of protists and 

 histona — Four chief classes of fundamental forms: (i) Cen- 

 trostigma : vesicles (smooth vesicle and tabular vesicle) ; 

 (2) Centraxonia: typical forms with central axis — Uniaxial 

 (monaxonia, equipolar and un-equipolar) — Transverse-axial 

 (stauraxonia, double-pyramidal and pyramidal) ; (3) Cen- 

 troplana: fundamental forms with central plane — Bilateral 

 symmetry — Bilateral-radial and bilateral-symmetrical fun- 

 damental forms — Asymmetrical fundamental forms; (4) 

 Anaxonia: irregular fundamental forms — Causes of form- 

 construction — Fundamental forms of monera, protists, and 

 histona — Fundamental form and mode of life — Beauty of 

 natural forms — /Esthetics of organic forms — Art forms in 

 nature. 



THE infinite variety of forms which we observe in the 

 realm of organic life not only delight our senses with 

 their beauty and diversity, but also excite our curiosity, 

 in suggesting the problem of their origin and connection. 

 While the aesthetic study of the forms of life provides 

 inexhaustible material for the plastic arts, the scientific 

 study of their relations, their structures, their origin and 

 evolution, forms a special branch of biology, the science 

 of forms or morphology. I expounded the principles of 

 ^this science in my General Morphology thirty-eight years 

 ago. They are so remote from the ordinary curriculum 

 of education, and are so difficult to explain without the 

 aid of numerous illustrations, that I cannot think of 



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