96 THE MORPHOLOGY 



portions, the smaller of which is composed of the three 

 groups of the AlgcB or sea-weeds, the Fungi, and the 

 Lichens. In this division we have, in general, no other 

 organs but the apparatus for the formation of reproductive 

 cells, and for this reason, that the process of development 

 is one and the same in all parts of the plant, each part, 

 therefore, represents the whole plant, and as such may 

 continue to live and grow. The forms are here mostly 

 bounded by extraordinarily vague outlines, especially in 

 the Fungi in which the plant itself is merely a wonderfully 

 perishable interwoven mass of delicate filaments. The 

 bodies usually called Fungi, in common life, are only the 

 reproductive organs, as it were the fruit of the plant. A 

 similar indeterminateness of form prevails also in the 

 simpler Algae, common water plants, and not less in 

 the lower Lichens,- the crustaceous kinds which cover 

 walls, stones and palings, with a whitish, grey or yellow 

 scurf. In the highest Algse and Lichens alone, the forms 

 become somewhat more definite, and often exhibit very 

 constant shapes, which even possess a resemblance to 

 stems and leaves, but without the same import, the 

 same morphological value as in the next great division 

 of plants. 



In the latter, we first meet with two so essentially 

 different processes of development in one and the same 

 plant, that we are obliged to regard their products as 

 essentially different elementary organs. 



One organ is the first, the original, and developes 

 itself unceasingly at its two free extremities, these extre- 

 mities are always its youngest, last formed parts ; this 

 organ we call the stem, in the widest sense of the word, 

 or the axis of the plant. On this original elementary 

 organ, and out of it, grows a second, the free end of 



