84 THE MORPHOLOGY 



ment of the vegetable world in its simplest form ; from 

 which, therefore, all the lower stages may be deduced 

 by omission or contraction, all the allied by combination 

 and complication. 



The accompanying plate (iv) will serve to represent such 

 a plant. It may be regarded as an abstraction of a very 

 simple and familiar plant, the Anagallis phoenicea, the large 

 blue-flowered variety of which decorates our windows, 

 under the name of Anagallis monelli. A close examina- 

 tion of this picture will render some of the more important 

 morphological conceptions more readily intelligible. A 

 mere glance even shows us the following characteristics : 

 In the first place, we distinguish a continuous principal 

 trunk (a to a vi), with various lateral appendages attached to 

 it (6, c to c vn and d) . Viewed more narrowly, these latter 

 exhibit some very striking differences, which are capable of 

 being arranged into three classes (which, therefore, are dis- 

 tinguished by the three letters b, c and d). Continuing 

 our investigation, we find the organs marked d (see Figs. 

 d I, d n) to be also composed of a main trunk and lateral 

 organs, and, having exactly the same characters as the 

 plant itself in their subsequent development, they are mere 

 repetitions of it, only distinguished by not being free 

 at the lower extremity. We may, therefore, readily exclude 

 these parts, called " buds" altogether from our consideration. 

 The organs marked b agree so perfectly in all their charac- 

 ters with the inferior free end of the plant, that we have no 

 hesitation in regarding them as portions of it, although 

 science subsequently points out that they differ essentially 

 in many points. We have now, therefore, only two organs 

 in the whole plant. The first is the continuous main trunk 

 of the plant, called " the axis" or " stem-organ" the latter 

 term being employed because the various forms of the 



