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BIOLOGY. 



necessity decomposed. One part evaporates as carbonic^ 

 agicLand water, the other coagulates into oxydized mucus 

 or into cell- walls. 



1482. Growth proceeds directly from the process of 

 digestion and respiration, while its polar organs constantly 

 remove further from each other. 



1483. Properly speaking the digestive and respira- 



,, r\ tory processes are none other than growth, since both 



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separate from each other. That, which originates be- 

 tween them, is the process of nutrition, the vascular 

 system. 



1484. Growth oscillates between the process of de- 

 composition and that of fermentation ; it is an uninter- 

 rupted fermentation. 



FALL OF THE LEAF. 



1485. If every pole of the plant has been perfected 

 in an isolated manner, it has thus become identical with 

 the air, and the aerial process ceases. 



1486. With the cessation of the aerial process, the 

 respiratory organ must also die off or perish. 



1487. The decadence, or falling off, of the leaves is the 

 result of the tension having been abrogated between 

 them and the stem ; it is a death by suffocation. 



1488. The fall of the leaf therefore occurs in the 

 autumn, or after the fruit is matured. 



DURATION OF LIFE. 



1489. The age of a plant is included between the 

 the limits of the sap's impulse, and that which has been 

 called its fall or descent. 



1490. The actual fall of the sap is the death of the 

 plant. 



1491. If with the cessation of the influence of light, 

 I the polarity ceases entirely in the plant ; it is then one 



i/fyear old or an annual. Every part of it dies off. 

 I i- ' 1492. In biennial plants the aerial polarity indeed 

 disappears, but the polarity of the root remains. Flower, 



and stalk die. 

 1493. Perennial plants, also, do not entirely lose the 



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