PHYTO-PIIYSIOLOGY. 273 



heat, and gravity in the corolla, pistil and seed. The 

 corolla irradiates, the pistil gives out heat, the seed sinks 

 like the earth towards the centre. 



1. Function of the Corolla. 



FERTILIZATION. 



1454. As in the vegetable trunk the principle func- 

 tion has been the antagonism between the aerial and the 

 terrestriaqueous plant, so must the same function be 

 repeated in the corresponding organs of the blossom. 

 It oscillates in the principal antagonism between the 

 corolla and pistil, which is the antagonism of leaf and 

 stem, that of electrisrn and chemism, of light and body, 

 of spirit and matter. 



1455. The pollen electrifies, animates, or inspirits 

 the ovarium, by which means it becomes stimulated 

 to the development of seeds. Without this animating 

 influence the seed had not been developed. 



1456. This relation, whereby through the balance of 

 an antagonism, a whole organism has been evoked into 

 life, is called the sexual relation. 



1457. The sex is consequently the antagonism between 

 spirit and matter, light and mass, aether and the terres- 

 trial elements, sun and planet, between electrism and 

 chemism, that has been represented in an organism as 

 totality. In sex consequently the primary antagonism 

 of the world, or that of spirit and matter, centre and 

 periphery, has been organically represented. 



1458. The sex has hence from the beginning been 

 established and prophesied; manifests itself also under 

 diverse forms in the Organic, but becomes first indivi- 

 dualized in an organic body. This is the lofty sense or 

 signification of the sexual relation, that in it the Spiritual 

 and Material pair together, and thereby sprout forth 

 or germinate into a whole world. In sex the mystery 

 of creation lies concealed. 



1459. What is producing the fruit is called the female, 

 that which awakes production, the male. 



1460. Mascularity is the spirit of the world, femi- 



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