THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 313 



proceeds toward its perfect formation, and gradually its 

 separate parts acquire different import. The whole cell is 

 at first the common organ for absorption of nutriment, for 

 appropriation, secretion and propagation. At first only 

 special portions of the more highly developed cell take upon 

 themselves, exclusively, the function of reproduction, the 

 formation of new cells. Gradually a greater number of 

 cells become united within the compass of one plant, and 

 then the special active forces become distributed into 

 especial cells, in which, at the least, they are more par- 

 ticularly prominent. The process of nutrition is at first very 

 simple ; from the matter taken up, that which is important 

 to the life of the plant is directly organized, and the super- 

 fluity rejected. Subsequently more and more of foreign 

 matters enter the field, and the simple, immediate process 

 of preparation of the food is broken up into a large series 

 of separate processes, the final result alone being the mediate 

 production of the vegetable substance, while from the 

 intermediate stages originate a number of subordinate 

 products essentially indifferent. To trace the comparison 

 further ; what seems to us a progress, is in fact a develop- 

 ment in the truest sense of the word, an unfolding and 

 separation of the simple parts which, in a higher numeral, 

 are combined into one whole. Thus the number 100 is a 

 simple number, but by development it may be converted 

 into 99 + 1, or 3 x 33 + 1, or 3 x (32 + 1) + 1, or 

 3 x [(4 x 8) + 1] + 1, and so on; we can, from the 

 conditions contained in it, set out a most complicated calcu- 

 lation, instead of the simple mark of 100 units, the final 

 product of which would still be merely 100. This is the 

 course which every development takes in Nature. 



The suffering Greek applied to the Priest of Hercules or 

 ^Esculapius. A herb which the latter cultivated around 



