The Sex and Generative Organs of Plants, 271 



facts in the present state of our researches at least, regarding 

 the generation of plants. 



The whole process forces us to the conclusion, that the 

 formation of the seed takes place by means of very opposite 

 antagonistical action in the conditions and organic force of 

 certain parts. Undoubtedly fecundation and its sequelae take 

 place very differently indeed in plants from the analogous 

 process in animals. In the latter, the whole chain of the 

 sexual process is lost in an organ which cannot be seen. The 

 first beginning of the new animal springs suddenly into 

 shape, while we had not before the slightest trace of it. 



On the contrary, in the growth of plants, their vegeta- 

 ble matter is seen by us in its first, as well as its last, 

 moments in corporeal and visible state of action. The 

 union of the organizable matter in the plant with the mat- 

 ter of the pollen tubes, the latter of which manifest their 

 great degree of vitality and plastic power by the immense 

 length to which they grow, takes place so as to be percep- 

 tible to our sight with the aid of the microscope. The life 

 of a plant is from its earliest moments visible to us, that of 

 an animal commences where it cannot be seen. For these 

 reasons, one may say, that the formation of a new plant is 

 dependent on the union of two different kinds of vegetable 

 matter, which have been refined by peculiar processes. In 

 this case, the origin of a seed might be looked on as similar 

 to various other appearances in the vegetable kingdom ; for 

 instance, to reproduction in some small plants, which are 

 looked on as sexless, and which are formed by several 

 small bladders or nuclei filled with slime, which issue from 

 two different plants, roll themselves together, and unite 

 themselves into a larger nucleus, which has the property of 

 sprouting and of growing into a new individual. On the 

 other hand, this process may also be compared with that 

 which takes place on the large scale, and much more plainly 

 in grafts, eyes, &c. We cannot but acknowledge, that nature 



2 M 



