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THEIR LIFE AND AFFINITY. 235 
account more a whole in itself, hence we know why the plant is from 
necessity more closely connected with the organism of the earth than 
the animal; considered in which point of view, the principal pecu- 
liarities of vegetable organization are capable of a general explanation. 
As the first consequence of the above fundamental peculiarity, we 
have to consider the division of the plant according to the direction 
of the two principal properties of the terrestrial organism, that is, in 
its tendency to inward unity (gravitation), and in its relation to the 
higher natural bodies (light). In this point of view, the plant must 
be regarded as consisting of two parts, the terrestrial and the aérial, 
the former consisting of the roots and stem, the latter of the leaves 
and flowers. From the division, or dualism, thus characterizing the 
plant, there follows also as a second consequence the want of internal 
unity in the formation of the plant in its relation to space. Moreover, 
while we see the animal endowed with different systems of organiza- 
tion, the one for absorption, assimilation, and secretion [ Stoffwechsel], 
the other for sensation and motion, and the first system inclosed 
within the second in the form of intestines; the plant, on the contrary, 
wants the intestines properly so called, and possesses nothing to cor- 
respond with the absorbing and assimilating intestines of the animal, 
but that which we call the root; so that while the animal, as a unity 
in relation to space, exists one half within the other, the plant, on the 
contrary, as a duality in relation to space, appears one half wpon the 
other. Hence we may moreover infer the original homogeneity of 
both halves; and this circumstance renders the reversion of their func- 
tions possible, so that the branch is converted into a root, and the root 
into branch, leaves, flowers, &c., as is proved by experiment. A third 
consequence is, that as the union of two points appears as a line, the 
line is the archetype of the plant; while, on the contrary, (as we shall 
show hereafter,) the globular form is the archetype of the animal 
body. The root, being subject to the law of gravitation, strikes down- 
ward toward the centre of the earth; the stem, the leaves, and the flowers, 
on the contrary, follow the light, and rise in the opposite direction, so 
that the whole represents a perpendicular line. The experiments 
instituted by Count Buquoi, in order to ascertain the constancy of 
these directions under unusual external circumstances, are in this 
respect well worthy of attention*. Seeds were put into a layer of 
mould lying loose at the top and bottom ; but, though placed closer to 
the lower surface, instead of growing out of this, they pierced through 
the far stiffer part of the layer, so as to grow out of its surface. 
Plants which were set upside down in a flowerpot always bent their 
flower-stem around the edge of the pot, and grew upwards. A 
fourth consequence of that fundamental property of the plant is its 
* Shixxen zu einem Gesetzbuche der Natur. Leipzig, 1817, p. 315. 
