T IEL JED 



AMERICAN NATURALIST. 



Vol. IX. — MAY, 1875. -No. 5. 



THE LAW OF EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT THE 

 SAME IN PLANTS AS IN ANIMALS. 



It is a well known law in the animal kingdon, that the young or 

 embryonic state of the higher orders of animals, resemble the full- 

 grown animals of the lower orders. As examples, we have the 

 tadpole, which is a young frog with gills and a tail, thus resem- 

 bling the fishes which stand lower in the scale than the reptiles ; 

 and the caterpillar which has the characters of a worm, but is the 

 immature state of the butterfly, an animal of a higher class of 

 articulates. The discovery of this important law. and its applica- 



rapid progress in the study of the animal kingdom; it has enabled 

 naturalists to determine the proper place of certain species in the 

 grand scale of beings, and thus to correct their systems of classi- 

 fication ; it has enabled geologists to decide upon the relative age 



It is the purpose of this paper, to show, as briefly as possible, 

 that the same law of resemblance between the immature of one 

 order and the mature of a lower order of animals, is equally true 

 in the vegetal.!.- kingdom, where its study may hereafter lead to 



and the more essential organs, stamens and pistils ; they hear fruit 



