458 STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



holds that the gamut of change has been run through unceas- 

 ingly in endless worlds and that there is nothing ever new, 

 nothing ever old, all being eternal. 



SUMMARY 



(1) The author in this chapter gives freer play to the imagination 

 than is usual with orthodox scientific investigation. In some intro- 

 ductory remarks he first points out that the seed is less specialised and 

 less conditioned than the plant, presenting us in its potentialities of 

 existence with a range of life-conditions that extends beyond the earth. 



(2) Discussing first the significance of the seed, he takes the 

 position that whilst the seed can live in other worlds, that is to say, it 

 is cosmically adaptive, the full-grown plant is purely terrestrial in its 

 adaptation. 



(3) Then follows a consideration of the nature of the difference 

 between the cosmic conditions common to all inhabited worlds and 

 the special conditions of any particular planet. 



(4) To elucidate this difference appeal is then made to the different 

 influences of conditions on our planet, those where the whole plant 

 responds without alteration of its type, and those where only part of 

 the plant responds and we get a variation of type. 



(5) The changes in the whole plant without alteration of the type 

 are regarded as illustrated by the behaviour of the gigantic Sequoias of 

 the Californian Sierra Nevada and of the dwarfed trees of Japan, the 

 first exemplifying the result of the relaxation of the life-conditions, the 

 second the result of the increase in their rigour, the one indicating the 

 expansion of the conditions of existence, the other their contraction. 

 It is in this direction that we have to look for the influence of the 

 cosmic conditions. 



(6) What man effects after years of tedious labour in the dwarfing 

 of trees nature accomplishes in the course of ages through the rigid 

 pressure of the life-conditions ; and in this way it is conceivable that 

 the growth of the plant could be ultimately confined to the cotyledonary 

 stage exemplified by Welwitschia^ and even to the earlier stage of the 

 resting seed. 



(7) The seed would thus represent the cosmic side of the plant, 

 whilst the fully developed plant-organism would be regarded as its 

 special terrestrial form, the one pointing in the direction of the 

 minimum of life's possibilities, the other toward the freest conditions 

 for growth. 



(8) Postulating a flora of the cosmos, the stage of development 

 of the same type in different worlds would depend on the degree 



