» 
The Vegetable Individual, in iis relation to Species 299 
iY 
Sa 
z 
character.* But, however important this fact may be, still we 
tay assert of the individual as well as of the species, that it com- 
pletes the cycle of its existence in a succession of subordinate 
generations, while, on the other hand, we may affirm of the spe 
cies, that like the individual, it exhibits a determinate cycle of 
development.t In comparing the processes of propagation with 
the process of the formation of the individual, cell-formation, 
which lies at the foundation of both, reveals the intimate con- 
hection which exists between the small and the great spheres of 
development; while the numerous cases which admit of a double 
explanation (since they may be ascribed with almost equal jus- 
7 tice to the inferior cycle of development of the individual, or to 
an the superior one of ¢ke species) establish the close relationship of 
both.» The akove-nsentioned circumstance, that the cycle of de- 
___Velopment does not present as gradwated a progress in‘ the species 
. as it does in the individual, scenas to suggest that the’most relia- 
Re. ble view of the analogy between tke species and the individual 
BS is that in which the species is not compared with the whole cycle 
| 2 of the individual’s successive development, but with the single 
x Sleps of the metamorphosis (which of course has its own sub- 
C ordinate members), and in which the species itself is regarded 
, 88 an inferior “momentum” of a still more comprehensive cycle 
the present investigation. | must first care- 
determine i sphere of the individual. The individual 
idered by itself: it must be viewed 
no individuals because, as GSppert 
com- 
the: 
wever, we m gard 
vegetable individual at 
important subject, but 
root, stem a other organs, 
power). Link, 1 Cy p. eee 
44 
