106 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES ON 



incorporated with it. In what is called reproduction by partheno- 

 genesis, we have a seed even without amalgamation with a sperm- 

 cell ; that is a simply unmarried bud. 



N^ow, in studying the lowest multicellular seaweeds, we find a 

 cellular basis, out of which leaves develop. Some of the cells of 

 these leaves contain reproductive male and female cells.* In 

 essence they do not differ from the sperm and germ cells of the 

 higher plants. How can they differ, when they are no other than 

 repetitions or pieces of the lower forms, only more differentiated, 

 and varied in myriads of ways ? 



The cellular basis, from which the fronds of the seaweed 

 emerge, appears to be the same thing as the cellular placenta of 

 the ovary, from which the seeds emerge. The frond of the 

 seaweed is vegetative and reproductive organ in one, the differen- 

 tiation being only in the cells of the same frond ; while in the 

 higher plants differentiation has progressed further, and the vegeta- 

 tive and reproductive cells have come to occupy separate organs. 



This cellular basis, which gives rise to special organs, whether 

 vegetative or reproductive, runs through the whole vegetable 

 kingdom as a sort of universal placenta, or mother structure, out 

 of which all other organs evolve. We may, of course, call these by 

 an infinity of different names for the purpose of easy (or difficult?) 

 intercommunication with our fellow-beings, but Prof. Weismann 

 has shown that, however we may call the vegetative part somatic 

 cells, they are nevertheless essentially germ and sperm cells, 

 turned to another purpose for the sake of economy and better 

 equipment of the individual for the battle of life. 



Wherever we turn in the study of plant life, we find 

 homologies, which, in plain English, mean the same parts, varied 

 for different ends, the whole being a sort of paste, elastic and 

 sensitive, and modifiable, according to circumstances. 



The higher plants are nothing but an unfolding of the simpler 

 forms of cryptogams into more complex combinations, in 

 order to meet the needs of more complex surroundings. In the 

 transition, innumerable forms of plants are developed, in a 

 medium very different from water, and, pari passu, innumerable 

 insects and other animals are developed, to which the plants have 

 to adapt themselves, the whole being subjected to changes of 

 temperature, and geological, climatic, and other disturbances. 



* Vide Porphyra laciniata in Thuret's " Etudes Phycologiques." 



