312 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES ON 



receptacle studded with minute florets, having between thent 

 bracteoles or hairs. The floral expansion o£ Dorstenia, which is con- 

 sidered as an open fig, would give support to this idea. But now, 

 how did the fig and its homologue the composite head originate ? 



I consider the fig as only an enlarged and hulged-out con- 

 ceptacle. There is nothing in the fig which would militate against 

 our considering it a highly developed conceptacle of a sea-weed, 

 except perhaps the antiquated notion that there is an essential 

 difference between phsenogams and cryptogams. In the concep- 

 tacle we have spores and antheridia and barren hairs. In the fig 

 we have female florets and male florets, and hairs or scales. 



We know that even a hair can be transformed into a branch, 

 as in Begonia phyllomaniaca and Drosera. A fortiori we ought 

 to admit that a spore and an antheridium, which are already the 

 beginnings of flowers, can more readily be transformed into the 

 male and female florets of a fig, which, after all, are admitted to be 

 only shortened branches. Moreover, we must confess that the 

 florets of the fig are a mere apology for flowers, and only called so 

 by botanical courtesy. 



The facts aj)pear to show that as the cryptogam is a rudi- 

 mentary form of the phaenogam, so the spore and antheridium of 

 the conceptacle are the rudimentary forms of pistils and stamens. 

 As to the whole flg, it does not require a great stretch of the 

 imagination to consider it a further development of the conceptacle.* 

 After all, what is the real difference between the seaweed spore 

 and the flg achene, between the antheridium and the fig anther ? 

 The spore has to fight its way in water, and, therefore, does not 

 require elaborate extra coverings for protection. It begins as 

 an ovule in the primitive state of a simple cell, and remains so. 

 The achene has to fight its way in the atmosphere, a medium of 

 a continually changing temperature and hygrometric state, and 

 therefore needs extra coverings. So that from simple ovule or 

 spore it has acquired by selection what we call seed coats (in all 

 probability modified bud-scales), and partially develops plumule and 

 radicle before it is weaned, and before it leaves the leading strings 

 of its mother. 



This is what Dr. G. King (Sp. of Ficus, Indo-Malay and Chin.) 

 says with regard to figs : — " Flowers, mostly unisexual, sessile, or 



* Vide Fig. 129 (a). 



