OF PLANTS. 87 



But if we would reduce this ideal plant to a simpler 

 form of vegetable life, e. g., a Fern, Moss, Conferva, &c., 

 we must confound and blend together its parts, till nothing 

 at all remains which retains the slightest resemblance to it. 

 Now, attempts at a morphological legislation are just as 

 little to the purpose, since they engage us, not in the actual 

 world, but on the sportive products of our own imagination, 

 and lead us to content ourselves with explanations and 

 laws, which only find application in a small portion of 

 the vegetable world, while all the rest remains dark and 

 incomprehensible. Gothe's typical plant, therefore, will 

 be of no use to us, and we must seek another path by 

 which to enter upon the contemplation of the relations 

 of form in the vegetable world. 



The subject has greater difficulties than at first appear ; 

 and to obtain a correct insight into this question, indeed 

 to avoid a gross error which renowned observers both 

 have, and do still daily fall into, it is necessary to take 

 a very comprehensive view of the kingdom of Plants. 

 When we speak of forms, of shapes, we mean the defined, 

 limited bodies existing in nature. The conception of any 

 body whatsoever, however, already presupposes, that it is 

 extended in all three directions of space, length, breadth 

 and depth. A mere line or surface is not a body, and 

 therefore no shape, and it gives us merely the simplest 

 relations to space, consequently, no basis for classification. 

 Now, one or two of these directions of extension may 

 predominate in a body ; we easily distinguish a thread 

 from a sheet of paper, simply by these conditions. Here, 

 however, there is but a simple more or less, but no deeper 

 essential distinction, as is most distinctly shown by the 

 fact, that where the external bounding or definition first 

 acquires a great importance in natural science, namely, 



