THE MORPHOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF PLANTS. %) 



coherent, have undergone changes of form which obscure 

 their individualities more than before. Not only are they 



much elongated, but they are so compressed as to be pris- 

 matic rather than cylindrical. This structure, besides dis- 

 playing integration of the morphological units carried on in 

 two directions instead of one; and besides displaying this 

 higher integration in the greater merging of the individuali- 

 ties of the morphological units in the general individuality; 

 also displays it in the more pronounced subordination of the 

 branches and branchlets to the main stem. This differentia- 

 tion and consolidation of the stem, brings all the secondary 

 growths into more marked dependence; and so renders the 

 individuality of the aggregate more decided. 



We might not inappropriately call this type of structure 

 pseud-axial. It simulates that of the higher plants in cer- 

 tain superficial characters. We see in it a primary axis along 

 which development may continue indefinitely, and from 

 which there bud out, laterally, secondary axes of like nature, 

 bearing like tertiary axes; and this is a mode of growth 

 with which Phaenogams make us familiar. 



§ 185. Some of the larger Algce supply examples of an 

 integration still more advanced; not simply inasmuch as 

 they unite much greater numbers of morphological units 



