Sea care tne 
The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species. 315 
ment ; that it should realize all the capabilities of the specific be- 
ing, and thus present to us the whole plan, the whole destiny of 
the species. If we examine the preceding conclusions from this 
point of view, it will be evident that single cells cannot be such 
individuals ; for, although the whole construction of the plant 
and all the functions of its life are carried on by means of the 
cells, still, viewed as a connected whole, the cells are only single 
Stones, single elements, in the great mechanism of the organism. 
Any single member of a plant (as the internode and leaf) corres- 
and tricecious,* relations, and farther, to the varieties, especially 
to those which do no ss essential organs and functions, 
which belong to the species as such; e. g.: those varieties whicl 
never bear blossoms (Ball-acacias), or which never produce fruit 
(congested blossoms), or which never perfect seeds (currant- 
Stape, cultivated bananas and bread-fruit trees). Besides, t 
Stock is exactly similar to another: we ascertain only the limits 
of the possible relations of the specific form by a comparison o 
many stocks, As in animal physiology the solution of the prob- 
lem of the life of many animals depends upon their social relations 
(societies composed of couples or of flocks, or of self-governing 
States), so in vegetable physiology it depends upon characteristic 
physiological tein cee th plants live single and dispersed, or in 
Societies. For example, in considering the life of turf-mosses we 
must determine whether they grow in great sods or in on aia 
and of grasses, whether they form meadows; or of trees, forests. 
Even the relations of geographical distribution, which are discov- 
ered by a comparison of all the stocks, depend upon the physio- 
* Triecio ; améng Phanerogamise (Ceratonia, some 
Kinds of Sasa tat ass maresnaenenoone the Cryptogamiw ; perhaps we may 
add the Floridize, In Polysyphanio violacea [have found three kinds of sere min. 
a ay ca da of development in the same place : (upon the same thread in 
* 
