MEGAZOOIDAL INDIVIDUALS 83 



protoplasmic Continuity of stage 1 is multiplied into the 

 cellular Continuity of the free zooid. 



4. The next multiplication of Continuity exhibits itself 

 serially. That is, we have the discontinuous zooids of 

 stage 3 joined together in series to make the Continuously 

 Zooidal Individual. Each zooid here is, as it were, a multiple 

 of the cell of the Filamentous Individual : growth is in 

 the form of a branching " zooidal filament." 



5. In what we have termed the " Megazooidal Individual " 

 Continuity is still further multiplied, and in a manner 

 bearing out the previous statement that the evolution of 

 living Continuity has proceeded by Serial and Lateral 

 Alternation. For there are two main classes of Megazooidal 

 Individual, one of which is represented by 



(1) Many discontinuous organisms, each equivalent to 



a number of zooids fused together in Lateral 

 Continuity during development ; 



while the other is composed of 



(2) A number of such organisms, or many megazooids, 



joined in Serial Continuity. 



In both cases the megazooid represents an ancestral 

 zooidal multiple compressed in its development, or during 

 its attempts at realisation on the ancestral plan. In addi- 

 tion to the two classes mentioned there is a third, in which 

 the whole individual is represented by 



(3) One large megazooid. 



In other words, we have first of all separate cells ; then 

 serial cell-Continuity to form a filament or " cell-colony " ; 

 then cell-series growing in lateral Continuity to form the 

 independent zooid ; then a number of zooids united in 

 serial Continuity to form a zooidal colony ; then a number 

 of zooidal series fused or compressed in lateral Continuity 

 to form the separate megazooid ; and then a number of 

 megazooids united in serial Continuity to form a mega- 

 zooidal colony. 1 



1 Although the intensification of Continuity has been traced above from 

 the independent protoplast, it is to be understood that this itself must be 

 a very high multiple of the ultimate growth-unit. The Continuity of the 

 cell is a great advance on that of the atom. Under " The Evolution of 

 Matter " this is again referred to. 



