316. The Vegetable Individual, in its relation to Species, 
logical character of the plants: plants of sensitive and inflexible 
constitutions are found only within narrow limits; while plants of 
adaptive and pliant constitutions are more widely distributed, be- 
come migratory plants, and by degrees spread over almost all parts 
of the earth, if their seeds possess the necessary properties. From 
these considerations, and many others which might be adduced, 
it is obvious that there are no determinate limits to a purely 
physiological conception of the vegetable individual; and that 
we ma and the definition of the individual until it coincides 
with that of the species itself. 
How then can we steer a middle course, betweer the mor- 
phological view, which results in indefinite subdivision, and the 
physiological, which ends in indefinite expansion? The physio- 
logical view has shown that none of the divisions or spheres of 
formation, which have been regarded as the individual ones, fully 
realizes the idea of the species; and that each needs the others 
to render this idea complete. The morphological view has shown, 
in the same manner, that there are subordinate and comprehen- 
sive spheres of development, none of which exhibits complete 
independence, since all appear in unequal degrees, as more or less 
perfeet members of the entire succession of the specific develop- 
ment. If we would discover the individual under such circum- 
stances, we must not demand of it all that belongs to the species ; 
for this is completely represented only in the totality of the indi- 
viduals, not in any single individual. We must answer this ques- 
tion: Which member of the graduated potential series in the 
sphere of development subordinate to that of the species deserves 
preéminently the title of individual? And we shall be compelled 
to reply: "That which exhibits the most complete independence 
and definiteness. Good use has decided in regard to man (ant 
the higher animals), and it justifies itself by the fact, that what 1s 
usually termed an individual undoubtedly possesses great organic 
independence: and this is true both of its subordinate spheres (1. @ 
the members of the organism, down to the cells) and of those by 
which the individual is comprehended (family, state, race, etc: 
By means of comparison and analogy, the signification of the 
more doubtful spheres of development among the lower animals 
and plants may receive some new light from such a view. I pro- 
pose to attempt this in the second part of this Investigation, but 
now {I will only subjoin a few general remarks. f 
the unity in every development, The more complete this sub- 
ordination, the more perfect is the individuality; for it is only 
this subordination to the unity which binds up the multiplicity 
the conformation into an indivisible organism. .'The less com- 
ie 
* Se ‘ 
