260 METAMORPHOSES OF MAN 



of the micropyle lias satisfied all tliat it is of service 

 sooner or later, and perhaps always.* 



Definitively, the male parent is as essential as the 

 female one to the constant duration of the species. 

 The start-point of generations forming any series is 

 not only an ovum, but a fecundated ovum. 



Hence, all that we have said regarding buds, 

 and of the generations proceeding from these germs, 

 applies to multiplication by unfecundated ova, and the 

 generations which they give rise to. They also are 

 intermediate beings, of secondary value, interposed 

 between the true parents and the true offspring. The 

 circle may enlarge or alter in form, it may undergo 

 central or circumferential changes, but it invariably 

 becomes closed. 



We have already seen that reproduction by buds 

 (whether internal or external), natural and artificial 

 reproduction by division, and alternate generation in 

 its varied forms, are really but so many manifestations 

 of one great phenomenon. We are led to say the 

 same of parthenogenesis — it is only a special form of 

 geneagenesis. 



# Leuckart, who began by separating parthenogenesis from alter- 

 nate generation, saw an essential difference between the two phe- 

 nomena ; viz., that in the first, fecundation may occur before every 

 reproductive act, but that in the second it must occur from time to 

 time in certain fixed acts of reproduction. — Bibliotheque Universelle 

 de Geneve, 1859. 



