MOKPHOLOGY. 125 



is alone to be expected when the mathematical construction of the 

 formation of crystals lies perfectly complete before us. If, however, this 

 is ever to be effected, we must enter upon all possible construction in a 

 very different way from what has hitherto been done. For this purpose, 

 we must consider somewhat more exactly the characteristics of organic 

 form, especially the vegetable, as opposed to the inorganic. The 

 inorganic form, the crystal, is permanent when once formed ; it is un- 

 changeable ; the individual (the individual existence) is the form itself, 

 and by its solution and change of form a new individual arises. In the 

 plant, on the other hand, the form is not stable, or permanent, but an 

 ever-changing one. The analogies between the two hold good only in 

 the simplest cases. The nucleus of a crystal originates in a definite form, 

 and then passes through a series of forms, until it reaches the deduced 

 crystalline form. As such it then remains unchangeable until the 

 individual is destroyed with the form. Thus, certainly, it has a very 

 simple history of development, but this continues merely so long as 

 something is still being added to that which is already present until 

 the whole is completed. The cell is formed in a manner somewhat 

 analogous to this, originating in a "definite form, and passing through a 

 series of changes, which, as it appears, only contribute new matter 

 until the form is complete ; this then remains stationary until its solution 

 and the consequent destruction of its individuality. It is, however, 

 wholly different in combined forms, and these it is which, with few 

 exceptions, compose what we term plants. Here a number of cells com- 

 bine together within definite external limits ; but these cells themselves 

 do not enter into the form as dead particles of the mass ; they continue 

 to develop new cells, whilst the old ones are partially destroyed : the 

 newly originated cells change, by their arrangement, the form of the 

 whole, and, since formation of new parts and destruction of the old are 

 continually going on, the general boundary of the whole never appears as 

 anything definitely fixed. As, however, this metamorphosis is constant 

 in its nature, and only occurs in individual parts, we cannot regard each 

 one of the forms resulting from this process as a new one, but merely as 

 a slight modification of the one immediately preceding it ; and this 

 peculiar connection brings the whole to us as one individual, which, at 

 its first appearance, may be entirely different in all its parts, both in 

 shape and material, from what it is at last ; but in the conception of 

 which we must comprehend the whole series of changing forms, wherein 

 the widely distant members have perhaps no element identical, if we 

 would attain to scientific knowledge, if we would understand the object, 

 and not merely acquire a disjointed, uncomprehended, and incomprehen- 

 sible impression. From these considerations it follows, granting the 

 paramount importance of the morphological method of observation, that 

 we gain nothing by the comprehension of the forms complete at any one 

 moment, but that we must trace out the law of morphological develop- 

 ment, and direct our scientific inquiries, not to an individual complete 

 at any one period, but to the comprehension of the collective constant 

 series of normally changing forms. The conception of genera and species 

 in Botany is consequently, therefore, not merely the result of a compari- 

 son, but also of a connection of the various individual characteristics 

 with each other. In this manner we should lay a firm foundation for the 

 inductions to lead us to a theory of organic morphology, if we could but 

 succeed in completing the theory of the formation of inorganic forms. 

 As yet we are far from this point, and simply because it is only in the 



