222 BIOLOGY. 



persed position is most probably the last completion of 

 the spiriform. 



1115. The spiriform arrangement stands in relation 

 with the formation of the tracheae. 



1116. The branches of the root observe no such 

 regularity, partly on account of weaker polarity, partly on 

 account of the obstacles placed in their way, at one time 

 by the impenetrable earth, at another by want of water. 



1117. The more the stem is differenced, so much the 

 higher is it developed. Thus the richer in number the 

 branches, by so much the more perfect is the stem. The 

 stelliform branches belong to the first development. The 

 plants, that have this arrangement, stand lower in the 

 scale. To this the crucial appears to succeed, as a mediate 

 position between the former and that which follows. The 

 spiriform ranks higher. In it the stem is manifestly 

 differenced more multilaterally. The dispersed arrange- 

 ment appears to be the highest, because in it the greatest 

 freedom prevails, because the poles have acted on every 

 part of the plant, because they are everywhere in the air 

 and in light. Plants with dispersed branches are organ- 

 ized air ; without branches they are organized water as 

 well as earth. Those plants only which have circles of 

 trachese or rings of wood, as e. g. the Dicotyledons, ramify; 

 these alone are, properly speaking, a conjunction by 

 growth of many plants, and one that is truly persistent, or 

 that bears fruit several times. The Monocotyledons being 

 devoid of woody rings, do not, or but very rarely, ramify. 

 Most of them therefore die off after they have once 

 produced fruit. The ramification is a multiplication of 

 the plant, in which the buds continue to stand upon the 

 old stem. 



Formation of Nodes. 



1118. The formation of nodes, as in the grasses, is an 

 attempt at differentialization, that has not, however, at- 

 tained to perfection. A node is a branch- whorl which 

 has continued to adhere to the stalk. Therefore the 



