232 MORPHOLOGY. 



called new theory amounts to the harmless joke, that in future we are 

 not to call the plant a plant, but a leaf; the leaf not leaf, but foliar-part 

 leaf; the stem not stem, but stem- part leaf ; and so on. I think we 

 ought not to interfere with anybody's pleasures ; but this is not science. 

 Finally, we have a third class of naturalists, with whom there is no 

 contending, who appear to have chosen their motto from St. Augustine : 

 " Credo quia absurdum est" These look down with a shrug upon the 

 poor empiric who sees no more in things than his senses, his logical 

 intellect, and his healthy reason show him. They argue thus : Just 

 because the impression shows us the stem first and the leaf afterwards, 

 it must be directly the opposite in the spiritual perception, which is 

 directly opposed to the dim-eyed and rude perception of sense. These are 

 the people who have bestowed upon us the nonsense of ideal abortions, 

 and ideal blendings of parts, &c. There is no contending with them, 

 because they recognise no conformity to law in our intellectual powers, 

 consequently no deciding rules and no forum, 



b. Varieties of Direction. 



127. In germination, every axis of the simple plant (of the 

 second order) developes straight upward from the ground on which 

 it grows, so that a line which connects the extremities at the ter- 

 minal bud and the radicle, describes a straight, or almost straight, 

 line perpendicular to the plane of the soil, consequently, in most 

 cases, to the surface of the horizon. The plants which germinate 

 floating in water only apparently deviate from this law, because 

 no fixed point is afforded them, in the fluid medium, on which they 

 can erect themselves; therefore they develope horizontally (float- 

 ing) even from the beginning. But this vertical direction only 

 remains law for the further development of the axis when the 

 latter has acquired, in proportion to its mass, a broad enough base, 

 depending upon the mode of development of the lowest internodes, 

 a secure attachment in the soil, depending on the requisite deve- 

 lopment of true or adventitious roots, and, lastly, a sufficient 

 rigidity depending on the conditions of structure. The extreme 

 and incessantly developing apex alone retains, throughout, the 

 tendency to grow upward. Here, also, the conditions often alter- 

 nate in the length of one and the same axis, according to specific 

 peculiarities. For instance, the straight commencement is fol- 

 lowed by some weaker internodes, then again by stronger which 

 rise upward (caulis adscendens), or several stiff internodes are suc- 

 ceeded at the end by some lax ones (caulis nutans). In rare cases 

 the originally vertical but weak internode is followed by firm 

 tough ones, which grow forth always flat upon the ground, as, 

 for instance, in Nymphcea, the axis of which never rises from the 

 soil. Moreover, the axis in the course of its formation either 

 grows out straight, or has a peculiar tendency to twine, whereby 

 it appears to be twisted round its own axis when it grows free ; or 

 if in contact with a slender firm object, it twines spirally round 

 this, and obeys specific laws as a left or right rolled spiral. Lastly 



