268 METAMORPHOSES OF MAN 



ovum, it will be found impossible to distinguish one 

 from the other. 



In the animal as in the plant, reproduction by 

 buds takes place spontaneously, and at the imme- 

 diate expense of the parent; and in both kingdoms 

 reproduction by seed and ovum requires the inter- 

 communication of two elements produced by special 

 organs. Whether these organs are united in one 

 individual, or borne by two distinct beings, the pro- 

 cess is fundamentally the same. There is a father 

 and a mother, a stamen and pistil ; an element which 

 fecundates, and an element which is fecundated. The 

 ovum, when unfecundated, although almost invariably 

 presenting its three characteristic spheres, will never- 

 theless possess no true germ; so likewise, the un- 

 fecundated seed will present only a rudimentary body, 

 concealed at the base of the pistil, and devoid of an 

 embryo. 



Thus, in both plants and animals, we find agamic 

 and sexual reproduction side by side. These two 

 processes are placed in both kingdoms under the 

 same conditions, and if we could enter here into tech- 

 nical details, we should see that they are accompanied 

 by almost identical phenomena. 



In order to observe the extent of this resemblance 

 between the relations which unite these two modes 

 of reproduction in plants and animals, let us do, as 

 Professor Owen has done, — place an ovum and a seed 

 side by side. Both have been fecundated. From the 

 one springs a ciliated larva, from the other a primary 

 stem, carrying two thick fleshy cotyledonary leaves, 

 quite different from those which will succeed them. 

 The larva becomes fixed, and is transformed into a 



