102 ON THE PLANT-CELL. 



folly ! This perplexity of ideas, correctly and most happily designated 

 by Valentin (Repert. Bd. 8. S. 4.) as Anachronism, has latterly been 

 carried to a great length by linger (Die Pflanze im Momente der Thier- 

 werdung) and Kiitzing ( Phycologia generalis). It can only be regretted 

 that such able inquirers should be so entirely without any philosophical 

 insight. 



Lastly, when, in the mention of facts of the nature in question, we 

 meet with the expressions " the cells move spontaneously here and 

 there," &c., it shows us how obscure and perplexed so many men even 

 of the greatest scientific acquirements may be. We discover spontaneity 

 only in our minds by self -observation. In animals, analogy leads us to 

 conclude its existence, from our observing actions having a definite 

 object ; and yet in this case the subject is attended with a sort of 

 mystery, for there is nothing by which we can know that the object was 

 really aimed at by the animal itself. No reasonable man, however, 

 believes that the planets designedly pursue exactly this or that course, 

 and with exactly the proper degree of rapidity or slowness, to prevent the 

 possibility of mishap; and yet an object is attained by their motion 

 the maintenance of the solar system. But, with reference to motions 

 by which in no case can any intelligible object be attained, to speak 

 of " will " is a mere playing upon words. 



VII. Reproduction of the Cell. 



45. When a large quantity of soluble assimilated matter, 

 together with the needful quantity of mucus, have been formed in a 

 cell, the processes described 23. necessarily recommence. One 

 or several new cells (filial cells, blastidia) are formed within the 

 cell (mother-cell, matrix), which is destroyed when the new cells 

 have attained a sufficient expansion. Since it is a matter of 

 course that a figure should depend upon the material from which 

 it is constructed, and the conditions of its formation, and as both 

 these are derived from the mother-cell, it necessarily follows that 

 the filial cells are repetitions of, or resemble, the mother-cell. 



If anywhere, it may certainly be here asserted that it is of essential 

 importance in the treatment of a science to set each individual point in 

 its appropriate place and in its proper light, to allow of the whole being 

 correctly understood. As the scientific problem has never been put 

 plainly and rigorously, nor the questions requiring answer deduced from 

 it, the point referred to in the section has remained even up to the 

 most recent period wholly untouched, and has in fact but just received 

 some cursory notices ; and yet in the whole vegetable kingdom there is 

 nothing of more importance. With few exceptions, every plant consists 

 of numerous cells ; the beginning, however, of every plant is in a single 

 cell, in the Cryptogamia the spore, in the Phanerogamia the embryonic 

 cell. The question respecting the multiplication of the cells consequently 

 includes the origin and the life of the whole plant, which remains alto- 

 gether obscure to us previous to the elucidation of this relation. The 

 mode in which one cell forms many, and how these, dependent on the 



* See C. v. Siebold de Finibus inter lleguum Animale et Vegetabile constituendis. 

 Erlangen, 1844. 



