365 



formless form. The sun comes to us as lieat ; and 

 between his entrance and departure the multiform 

 powers of our globe appear, they are all special arras 

 of solar power, the moulds into which his strength 

 is temporarily poured is passing from its source 

 through infinitude." 



Thus we are enabled to see that every germ of 

 life is subject to an ever varying condition, hence 

 the multiform flora and fauna. Man's experiences 

 in past, have made for us in this age our acute 

 perceptions and sensations ; our reliable deductions 

 are based upon experimental philosophy, the step- 

 ping stone from darkness to light. We know that 

 similar conditions produce similar results, and also 

 that an exact similitude of condition is impossible 

 in organic life, and that certain applications retard 

 or facilitate vegetation. We seem approaching the 

 subjugation of the mysteries of organic change, taking 

 the sun as the source of life through its heat given 

 to our planet, and this heat power as an equivalent 

 of the sun's molecular motion,, convertible into 

 molecular motion on our globe ; under this power 

 then every seed for germ finds its origin in some 

 form in the perfected organization of a tree, each 

 seed has its beginning influenced and sustained by 

 its parentage during a brief interval of time, and 

 iust at this period, the lines of similarity are estab- 

 lished by a magnetic impress the immediate result 

 of molecular motion. This inception of new life 

 retains the impress of its progenitor, merely as a 

 directive agency, that is the power to produce 

 merely the likeness of an apple to an apple, peach 

 to a peach, pear to a pear tree, so that no sudden 

 change, such as an apple tree producing a plum, 

 could take place. The organic compounds which 

 go to build up the vegetable tissue acting under 

 this directive agency of the seed, serves to build up 

 the fabric in its characteristic type ; subject to many 

 surrounding influences,these lines of similarity or first 

 impression are diminished or increased by favorable 

 or unfavorable conditions such as for instance, the dif- 

 ference we recognize in the flavor and tissue of fruits 

 in wet and dry seasons, the growth of the tree also 

 is effected. These forces and forms are not lost, 

 but are given off in the effort of perpetuation of 

 new being in the process of reproduction. To take 

 into consideration the whole of these mutual rela- 

 tions and conversion of force, would surpass human 

 ability. 



In the August No. of your Montlihj, Mr. P. 

 Woodley has touched some interesting questions 

 relating to variation. Variations which are refer- 

 able to so many contingencies, both in the supply of 

 heat and its concomitant, as well as in organic 



supply of carbonic oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, . 

 that the chances of establishing similar results are 

 most remote. Dr. Mayer says, " That special 

 attribute of the vegetable germ is its power of util- 

 izing after its own particular fashion, the heat 

 which it receives and applying it as a constructive 

 power to the building up of its fabric after its char- 

 acteristic type. I am perfectly satisfied that this 

 characteristic type in long periods of time changes 

 under the influences (I have endeavored partly to 

 describe) to various dissimilar types so unlike in 

 character that no Botanist could dare to class them 

 under the same species ; but only those sustained 

 by long continued favorable conditions, can pro- 

 duce an apparently fixed type. We would not be 

 willing in these calculations to compute time by 

 historical record. 



To offer an explanation to the paragraph, con_ 

 tained in Mr. Woodley' s article on " Soorting in 

 fruits and flowers," upon which the whole article 

 hinges. He says, " Nay, we see two extraordinary 

 phenomena in this case, — the bud propagating its 

 kind yet differing in its product from its own seed." 

 Now if we view the seed as a directive agency only, 

 in building up a fabric of a characteristic type, and 

 not as a directive agency in the production of seed,-- 

 which it certainly is not — for the seed is the result 

 of forces acting through and upon an already per- 

 fected organization independent of that directive 

 agency, which gave the tree its characteristic stamp. 

 A tree may and does stand perfected in organization 

 without the act of generation. Thus the bud is a 

 mere continuation of the directive agency: laboring 

 to perfect the characteristic type, which under ordi- 

 nary circumstances ought to continue the same ; 

 yet there may be conditions so powerful as to pro- 

 duce a graft hybrid. I never had the good fortune 

 to see one. 



The vital activity of the tree is shown forth in the 

 provision made for the perpetuation of its race, by 

 the production of the germs of new individuals. 

 This act of generation unmistakably exhibits the 

 introduction of a new force, assuming a directive 

 agency, apparently antagonistic to the older one ; 

 for whilst a higher temperature is usually required 

 for the development of the flower and the matura- 

 tion of the seed, than that required to sustain ve- 

 getable gros^th, the generative act is capable of 

 destroying the tree. This then is a foreign element 

 cast into the line of descent, leaving its impress and 

 giving a new directive agency, based upon conditions 

 differing from those of the germs immediate ances- 

 tral. The disturbances must for ever continue un- 

 der the theory of molecular motion of matter, and 

 until our friends can control this force we must sub- 

 mit to variation. 



