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THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



Ill 



) 



P^esc 



H 



i 



theo 



nt 



retical 



PriHj; 



^^^^t these 



% 



ful obs 



Ot 



^ 



^n'atiot 



similar 



varial; 



y "^ight chat 

 in accordance- 

 ■nade such 

 ^tudy\ 



lay develop at: 

 hence intoFi 

 lie forms onlj: 

 tc 2;radesofSr 



always tend^ if left under the same conditions^ to 

 develop into structures similar to those from which 

 they had been derived. 



Thus we shall find that it is but a direct conse- 

 quence of their very nature and mode of growth that 

 many Fungi develop various kinds of ^fructification/ 

 And in this case we find that portions (usually called 

 ^conidia^ or ^ spores^) into which the living matter 

 divides or buds, have the power — when separated 

 from the parent 

 tioris, into organisms which resemble those from which 

 they had been derived. Why do they possess such a 



of developing, under similar condi- 



power ? Because, being fragments of living matter 

 formed 



in, or as parts of, an organism of a given 

 character, they have derived from it (or ^inherited') 

 3t almost cett! certain developmental capacities by which, when sepa- 



betweci 



rmony 



uch lower 

 ions by whi* 

 rowth, anJ! 

 ic molecular 



i 



tl-ro^^ 



:, off b^i' 



o 



ff from 



acf^ 



the 



different f^ 



rr 



es, 



or 



maj 



;bC 



^vithout pre , 



rate, they are enabled to grow into organisms like the 

 parent — ^just as a bud from the surface of Hydra vlridls 

 will develop into another polype of the same kind. 

 The parent Fungus assumed the organic form which 

 it possessed, because such form had been the joint and 

 necessary product of the ^ conditions,'' acting upon the 

 particular molecular mobilities and modes of growth of 

 plastic new-born living matter. Mr. Spencer says ^ : 

 * As certainly as molecules of alum have a form 

 of equilibrium, the octahedron, into which they fall 

 when the temperature of their solvent allows them to 

 aggregate, so certainly must organic molecules of each 



1 ( 



Appendix to Principles of Biology,' p. 487. 



