IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 67 



germination of the seed, though this is really nothing 

 more than the evolution of an embryo already elaborated. 

 As we descend to lower forms, we find one or other of these 

 subsidiary stages becoming more prominent by the diffusion 

 over them, as it were, of plastic energy, abstracted from the 

 elaboration of the typical form, which declines proportion- 

 ally in complexity of organization. In the Gymnospermese 

 and the higher Cryptogamia it is the gamomorphic stage 

 which gradually acquires importance, the protomorphic not 

 being conspicuously brought out till we reach the mosses 

 and lower orders. 



In the following chapter a similar survey will be taken 

 of the modifications of the process in the animal kingdom. 



