* 
= 
300 The Vegetable Individual, in tts relation to Species. 
in the successive generations to which it belongs. This succes- 
sion may be similar or dissimilar, simple or complicated by divi- 
sions, continuous or graduated by cyclical changes. It is by this 
that the phenomena of fissiparous and alternate generation may ( 
be explained. It is only by a consideration of these relations that | 
the nature of the individual itself, as a subordinate sphere of the 
species’ development, can be rightly comprehended, and that the 
single individuals in their worth and importance, 3n their relations 
to each other and to the whole realized cycle of the species, can 
be understood. 
Preliminary heal io on Vegetable a different 
s in regard to 
We must determine what constitutes the vegetable individual, 
before we can pact its relations to the whole cycle of gen-_ 
eration of ‘the sies. But it is this determination itself which 
presents so phi difficulties; and these difficulties become the 
greater, the further we push our investigations. Individuality in 
plants seems as obscure and ambiguous, as in animals (at least 
in their higher orders,) it appears clear and simple; so that, as 
Steinheil remarks, it escapes us just when we are upon the point 
of seizing it ;* and investigators might even conclude that we can , 
realize no other individuality than that which is manifested in the 
totality of the species. The first obstacle to our comprehending 
the vegetable individual as a single sphere of conformation, a @ | 
morphological whole, is the disconnected and: ‘separate character ey 
which obtains in the most heterogeneous modifications of vegeta- 
ble organisms. For no where jn the vegetable kingdom do we 
reeive that indissoluble ¢ tion, and those pervading recipro- 
cal functions, which in the animal kingdom-we are accustomed 
to associate with the nig of an individual organism. Nev erthe- 
less, by starting from a comparison with animals we get an yer 
site point of departure for a co iehension of the plant’s indi- 
nomgaties Among the higher animals, the individual appears 
member of a race produced by sextial generation ; and this 
eat may be applied to plants, except in the very lowest for 
to which sexual generation does not apply at all, or not 
tively. Without at present discussing the question w 
vegetable Ss aid gen thus conceived is truly bale 
imal individual, may here state, that 1) 
ried out to its sotiabntiai involves the i on 
pS a not by sexual generation, but 1 
vision, are not individuals ‘bat. 
am dates dove organes skal wiecatn eae 
de sant Vindivid Ase ae eee 
ualité végétale (1836), p. 9. 
