536 ORGANOLOGY. 



goes on developing, and is capable of producing new reproductive 

 organs, as in Ananas. In compound plants, the same takes place 

 with the single individuals of which they are composed. In this 

 case a very remarkable condition sometimes occurs ; the seed of 

 many perennial plants, originating themselves from seed, is en- 

 tirely incapable of reproducing the individual, and this power of 

 producing reproductive organs is first possessed by buds produced 

 from individuals in the tenth or more generation. 



In the majority of Algce and Lichens, in which we can hardly speak 

 of a special individuality, and in which the smallest portion of the 

 whole plant represents and lives for itself, the above law finds no appli- 

 cation : on the other hand, it is more applicable to the remaining Lich- 

 ens and to the majority of Fungi, in which the whole plant seems to 

 consist of reproductive organs. In the rest of the vegetable world, it is 

 understood that the individual proceeding from a bud, if its shoot is 

 single and terminal, and is converted into reproductive organs, must die. 

 The same must take place in the simple plant, whose lateral buds are all 

 converted into flowers or flower-stalk, as soon as the terminal buds are 

 converted into flowers. If the last does not take place, it depends upon 

 specific peculiarity, whether the life of the entire individual is exhausted 

 in the formation of flowers (as in Musa, and some palms), or whether it 

 continues to grow with a terminal shoot, which frequently produces re- 

 productive organs (as in most Palms). 



The most remarkable condition is that last . mentioned, which takes 

 place in most dicotyledonous trees. In this case the individuals which 

 are produced very late from the lateral buds form reproductive organs. 

 Perhaps there may be polypes placed in a similar condition, so that an 

 animal developed from an egg is not in a position to form eggs, but that 

 one of its lateral branches subsequently acquires this power. 



F. Death of the entire Plant. 



210. The life of the entire plant through the self-existence of 

 the elementary organs exists as such only in the morphological 

 union of the cells, and, as the plant never possesses all its organs at 

 the same time, in the history of its development. It is thus that 

 plants die immediately that there is no longer any possibility of in- 

 dividual development. If we distinguish plants into simple and 

 compound, we shall find that only in a small part of the simple 

 plant a termination of its process of development, and through this 

 alone its death is determined ; that is in the simple plant, whose 

 terminal buds are developed into reproductive organs. In some 

 other plants, it appears that, without any such development of the 

 terminal buds, the vegetative power of the plant becomes ex- 

 hausted through the development of all the axillary buds into re- 

 productive organs, flowers and flower-stalks ; but in what way we 

 know not. In all compound plants, and in many simple ones, a 

 special condition occurs in which the simple plant, as such, dies ; 

 but in one part, which is quite unable to develope new organs, it 



