274 METAMOEPHOSES OF MAN 



embrace a certain number of generations, and termi- 

 nate in the re-appearance of truly sexual individuals. 

 No matter how numerous the generations comprised 

 by a cycle may be, all the individuals, animal or 

 vegetable, sexual or neutral, which compose them, 

 are still the direct or indirect product of the same 

 ovum, or the same seed. All are therefore the 

 mediate or immediate offspring of the male and female 

 parents which produced and fecundated this primary 

 germ.* 



The analogies we have pointed out are maintained 

 to the end. We know that the Hydra and Aphis which 

 have acquired their sexual characters, perish almost 

 immediately after having deposited their ova. The 

 Coryne mother becomes atrophied and resorbed as soon 

 as it has emitted its fecund germs. As soon as they 

 have started new series of cycles and insured the per- 

 petuation of the species, these reproductive individuals 

 have fulfilled their mission, and therefore disappear. 

 The life of the food-sucking individuals, on the contrary, 

 is prolonged, for they have to support the colony and 

 provide the materials for new buds. It is hardly 

 necessary to remind the reader, that here also we find 

 the analogy already observed between plants and 

 animals. The vegetal flower, more fleeting 'than the 

 animal one, fades away as soon as the seed is formed, 

 and even before it has ripened. The floral branch, or 

 vegetal reproductive individual, is like the hydra and 

 the aphis mothers, and discharges its office but once 

 in its lifetime. On the other hand, the foliaceous por- 



# The words male and female parent are here employed to 

 designate the male and female sexual apparatus, whether they are 

 distinct, or combined in the same individual. 



