REJUVENESCENCE IN NATURE. 31 



leaflets, and descend gradually on the tips penetrating 

 into the earth to cataphyllary leaf- formation. 



The anticipatory condition of the sprout is no less 

 frequent than the retrogressive. It occurs, for example, 

 where we see flowers arise without bracts {Vorbldtter), or 

 with such leaves as belong to the hypsophyllary leaf- 

 formation, from the axils of euphyllary leaves, as in 

 Linaria cymhalaria, Lysimachia Nummular ia, Tropceo- 

 lum, &c. 



More important for our purpose is the consideration of 

 the deficiencies of the sprouts in the upper part, i. e. in 

 reference to the formation with which they close. Not 

 every sprout carries the developmental series, whether it 

 take it up lower down or higher up, to its termination in 

 the formation of flower and fruit ; but certain determinate 

 sprouts remain fixed at determinate subordinate stages, 

 beyond which they have no power, or only in extraordinary 

 cases, to advance ; nay, there are even cases where instead 

 of an advance to the final term in the building onwards 

 of the sprout, a retrogression of the metamorphosis takes 

 place, which is frequently followed by a periodical vibra- 

 tion up and down of the formations, connected with the 

 changes of the seasons. So, for instance, in the oak, the 

 beech, and the chesnut, the sprouts of which produce 

 cataphyllary and euphyllary leaves in regular alternation 

 from year to year.* 



These limitations downwards and upwards, which de- 

 termine the history of the individual sprout, in contra- 

 distinction to the history of the life of the entire plant, 

 form the most essential causes of the infinite multiplicity 

 we meet with in the formation of sprouts in vegetables. 

 Far removed, therefore, from merely subserving to an 

 asexual increase and a multiplication of identities, the 

 plant rather developes its great multiplicity in this very 

 formation of sprouts, and thereby becomes a '■'vegetable" 



* The same is the case with Adoxa, which creeps along the ground and 

 rises and descends in undulations with the alternation of euphyllary and 

 cataphyllary formations. 



