The Individual Plant 
dermis of the original leaf). The strongest of them soon 
gets ahead and promptly flowers and seeds. 
The fortunate one is usually near the leaf stalk, but 
any of them may succeed in surviving. 
There is of course a want of order about these pro- 
ceedings, but the orderly nature of plant life has been 
upset, and one should rather admire the readiness to 
save the situation, than blame the want of discipline 
exhibited by the competitors, 
Such an instance as this is very difficult to explain 
on Weissmann’s theory of a special germ plasma, which 
can alone reproduce a new plant, for the leaf has im- 
provised not one but several potential germ plasmas. 
Moreover internodes (for instance, of Ceropegia 
Woodii), when separated or cut away from the parent 
plant, can produce tubers and eventually flower. Root 
cuttings are by no means unusual, and give rise to 
quite normal plants. 
It is very hard to believe then in the existence of 
an “immortal” germ plasma in any way separated 
from ordinary protoplasm, though of course the proto- 
plasm of pollen grain and egg cells differs from that 
found in ordinary cells (compare Darwin). 
Competition can be clearly distinguished amongst the 
twigs of a tree, all of which seek the light. 
The same struggle goes on between the twigs on one 
branch, or the leaves on one twig, and even to some 
extent between the flowers of one inflorescence. It is 
surely true that every cell in the plant is also competing 
with its neighbours for water nourishment, oxygen and 
the like. This has been long insisted upon by Rolf and 
others, but seems never to have been quite appreciated, 
1 Hansgirg. 2 Pringsheim. 3 Blackman and Matthael. 
4 Mahew et Combes. 5 Svendsen. ° Jeffrey. 
7 and ® Nemec. ® Kupper. 10 Winkler, Figdor. 
11 Darwin. 
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