AND THEIR REAL NATURE. 115 



ducing seeds or individuals of the primary form or that to 

 Avhich the plant owed its origin, only by the intervention 

 of a whole series of generations. It is certainly the great 

 triumph of Morphology, that it is able to show how the 

 plant or tree (that colony of individuals arranged in 

 accordance with a simple vegetative principle, or funda- 

 mental law,) unfolds itself tlu^ough a frequently long 

 succession of generations, into individuals, becoming con- 

 stantly more and more perfect, until, after the imme- 

 diately precedent generation, it appears as Calyx and 

 Corolla with perfect male and female individuals ; 

 stamens {Staubblättern,) and pistils {Fruchtblättern) — 

 (so that even in the vegetable kingdom the grosser her- 

 maphroditism does not obtain, which is still supposed to 

 take place in the animal,) and after, the fructification 

 brings forth seed, which again goes through the same 

 com'se. It is this great and significant resemblance to 

 the vegetable kingdom, which in my opinion is presented 

 by the entozoa, and all " nurse' generations {amme,) and 

 to which I have alluded in the preceding Essay ; I might 

 almost say, that the condition of continued dependance 

 incidental to the animal life, is, to a certain extent, one 

 of less perfection than that which is presented in the 

 progressive elevation in development effected by the 

 agency of the vegetative life. 



