in] OTHER DEFINITIONS 81 



arisen thus asexually by grafts or slips, from actively 

 growing parts of the one original parent, all possess, 

 in the mutation, a common character separating them 

 from other plants of the same species, and this 

 common difference persists as long as sexual fusion 

 does not take place between bits of their proto- 

 plasm. 



Phrases such as " he has a marked individuality," 

 or "he is very individual" lead people to suppose 

 erroneously that one of the chief characters of an 

 individual is its difference from all others. Then, 

 seeking for some clue to guide them through the 

 mazes of animal individuality, they seize upon this 

 and say that because one stream of protoplasm 

 exhibits constant differences from other streams, it 

 is therefore an individual. It then appears that in 

 many cases these differences only persist from one 

 sexual act to the next : therefore, say they, the sum 

 of the forms between two sexual acts must constitute 

 an individual. 



However, even apart from the initial flaw, that 

 mere difference constitutes individuality, the chain 

 of argument will not hold, for it is found that not 

 all mutations are similar to those we have described : 

 permanent and considerable changes may take place 

 at any time during the life-cycle, and not in the 

 sexual act alone. The so-called bud-sports of many 

 plants are of this nature : from a single bud on a 



H. 6 



