252 



PHYTONOMY. 



380. 



But the most important proof of the higher, and even of 

 the sensitive Hfe of plants, is derived from the events that oc- 

 cur during fructification. The regular order in which the 

 antheras free themselves by degrees, and indeed one after an- 

 other, from their pollen, is a phenomenon which we cannot 

 well account for but by the admission of higher powers. 

 This regular order is seen most distinctly in the Garden Rue 

 and the Parnassia palustris. 



The splitting of the two-lipped stigmata in the Mimulus 

 and Gloxinia before fructification, and the quick shutting of 

 the two lips, the moment that a particle of pollen is placed 

 upon the inner surface of the stigma, also announces the ex- 

 istence of a susceptibility which does not require to be much 

 exalted, in order to pass into the feeling of an animal body. 

 But we must also take into account the consequences of the 

 increase of the plant,— of the gradual unfolding of its parts, 

 and of dichogamy ; because in the Malvaceae, as well as in 

 the Syngenesious plants, the late appearance of the stigma, 

 and its prolongation above the filaments, are to bp ascribed 

 to the letter causes. 



381. 



Finally, we think we shall be able to prove, that the whole 

 process of fructification is truly a dynamical operation, in 

 which every thing depends on the excitement of a new life 

 in the germen. ' 



The times are past when previously formed embrya were 

 supposed to exist in the ovula of the unimpregnated germen. 

 This previous existence of embrya is contradicted in the 

 strongest manner, not only by the production of hybrid 

 plants, when two different kinds are forced together for the 

 purpose of artificial impregnation, by which means the pro- 

 duced plants exhibit the combined characters of both the pa- 

 rents, (Jos. Gottl. Koelreuter, Vorlaufige Nachricht von eini- 

 gen das Geschlecht der Pflantzen betreffenden Versuchen. 

 Gallesio, Theorie der vegetabilischen Reproduction) ; but also 

 'py the changes of forpi which a plant undergoes by reproduc- 



