430 LECTURE XXVI. 



the remainder of the protoplasm, that which is capabje of true development and 

 which is contained between the capillitium, breaks up into innumerable, minute, 

 rounded portions, which constitute the reproductive cells or spores. Thus we have 

 here processes of growth where even the last trace of accompanying cell-formation 

 has disappeared. While in the Coeloblastse the entire plant, if we wish to extend the 

 comparison to the utmost, may be regarded as a single cell, since it is enveloped by 

 a firm cellulose membrane, this is no longer possible in the case of the Myxomycetes, 

 although, as we have seen, they develope definite forms and grow. In this case, an 

 extremely simple form of cell development appears only when the growth is con- 

 cluded ; this, however, has nothing more to do with the growth itself. 



It is important to refer to this point, since for a long time the utterly mistaken 

 view was held, that the whole configuration and increase in volume of a plant 

 may be explained from the life of its individual cells. Such is evidently not the case : 

 just as the growth of the whole plant and of one of its entire organs, so also that of 

 its individual cells results from general laws of configuration, which dominate organic 

 quite in the same way as inorganic material. 



