i6 THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF HEREDITY 



regular occurrence. In fact, all the flowering plants pro- 

 pagate, in addition to the sexual way by budding, by means 

 of flowers and seed, in an asexual manner ; for every shoot 

 and branch of the plant must be looked upon as a distinct, 

 asexually produced individual. In reality, a flower-bearing 

 branching plant is to be compared to the ramified animal- 

 stock ; it is, indeed, a multiple individual, a " plant-stock/' 



(c) Sporulation. 



In sporulation we have special cells of the body set aside 

 tor reproduction, which, after detaching themselves from 

 the mother-organism, produce the new progeny. These 



CL 



Fig. 9. — EuGLENA Viridis. 



{From Claus, " Textbook of Zoology.") 



a and 6, free, swimming, in different states of contraction ; c to e, 

 encysted and in process of division. 



cells may already be called germs in the proper sense, but 

 they differ from the real germ-cells in this respect — that 

 they are sexless. 



Sporulation is chiefly to be found among the lower plants 

 — Algae, Mosses, Ferns, etc. — and in a few kinds of Protozoa. 

 In some cases — as, e.g., in the Infusorian Euglena — the 

 whole contents of the original organism, after becoming 

 encysted, break up into a mass of spores, which, bursting 

 the mother-shell, swarm freely about as the new young 

 individuals. 



