18 HEREDITY 



reproduction, as in the case of the bacteria, we may 

 here leave them thus briefly noticed, and turn our 

 attention to the mode of reproduction which may be 

 regarded as the next in order of complexity — repro- 

 duction by gemmation. This is typically represented 

 in the yeast plant. The new individual springs from 

 the old by a process of budding. In the act of birth 

 the relation of one to the other is the same as that 

 of a large soap bubble to a small one apparently 

 springing from it. Here also the new individual is 

 seen to be no more than a separated part of its 

 parent ; the likeness between the two is so far 

 from offering a problem as to be necessary and 

 inevitable. 



But we journey for only a very short distance 

 through the animal and vegetable kingdoms before 

 we come in each case to a mode of reproduction 

 which persists, so far as essentials are concerned, 

 even in the most complex and youngest species — 

 such as man or the oak — with which we are 

 acquainted. 



In the case of the bacillus, reproduction involves 

 the total evanishment of the parent. The mother is 

 lost in her daughters. Not essentially dissimilar is 

 the case of the yeast plant or the unicellular ani- 

 mals. But directly we leave these lowest forms we 

 find ourselves confronted with a totally different 

 state of things. The parent is no longer lost in her 

 offspring, nor is indeed the smallest essential part of 

 her. Further, the relation in size and in realisable 

 complexity between the parent and that by which 

 the parent is reproduced, becomes almost incalcul- 

 able. The reproductive cell of a woman is about j^ 



