162 
when placed in moderately moist soil in the open 
air, and the animalcules called anguille and ro- 
tiferi which may be dried into an inert and seem- 
ingly lifeless condition, and will revive in a brief 
period after being immersed in water. But the 
seed is only the small and final epitome of the 
plant, and not the plant itself; and it is never 
out of its natural condition, but passes through 
a proper stage of its existence in drying and lying 
temporarily dormant as truly as it did in ripen- 
ing; while the anguilla, or the rotifer, is the entire 
animaleule, and is first placed in an unnatural 
condition, and afterwards restored to its native 
element. The supposed analogy, therefore, is a 
mere fancy; and even were it a fact, it applies 
to but a speck of the extreme verge of the animal 
kingdom, and cannot, without the most violent 
| outrage, be regarded otherwise than as a perfect 
| contrast to the general and pervading law of that 
kingdom ; for animal organization, with scarcely 
any other exception than this trivial one among 
animalcules, is absolutely and broadly distin- 
| guished by tendency to rapid decomposition — 
Another favourite analogy is between the repro- 
duction of plants by slips or cuttings, and the 
reproduction of polypi by simple division or cut- 
ting asunder. But this, too, might easily be 
shown to be more apparent than real; and even 
though admitted to be a fact, is strictly an anom- 
aly and not an analogy; for cutting asunder can 
as little illustrate as it can effect the reproduction 
of almost any other form of animated body than 
the polypus. 
A kind of analogy in newer vogue asserts 
| that a plant is not a plant at all, but a com- 
| monwealth of plants,—its leaves, flowers, stipules, 
spikes, and other parts being so many indivi- 
duals of different ranks, living together in the 
| ‘same fashion as magistrates, merchants, farmers, 
and operatives in a nation of human beings; al- 
| leges that individuals of one rank in this com- 
monwealth are convertible into individuals of an- 
other rank, the leaves for example into flowers, 
_or the spikes or roots into branches; and tells 
us that certain zoophytes or plant-like ani- 
mals, called sertulariadz also grow and stick 
together in the manner of commonwealths, and 
| that the nutritive individuals of each mass or 
| commonwealth of them are convertible into re- 
productive individuals, and the reproductive in- 
dividuals into nutritive. One of two things which 
this theory takes for granted, that a corn-plant 
or a cabbage is not an individual plant but a 
whole commonwealth of corn-plants or of cab- 
bages, is every way worthy of the derision with 
which all ploughmen and ditchers are certain to 
_treat it; and the other thing taken for granted, 
that the different parts of plants are convertible 
into each other, though undoubtedly counte- 
nanced by many interesting facts, is not wholly 
true,—but will fall to be briefly noticed in our 
article on MorpHonogy. Yet though the as- 
sumptions were conceded, the alleged analogy 
ANALOGY. 
founded on them, like the two preceding alleged 
analogies, applies to a mere speck on the frontier 
of the animal kingdom, and, as regards the rest 
of that kingdom, is a downright anomaly and 
contrast. 
Another new set of alleged analogies is elo- 
quently advocated by Professor Forbes, and is 
stated, in the following terms, in a report of a 
paper which he read at a meeting of the Royal 
Institution: “ If we regard the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms as consisting of two spheres or 
groups, we should find that there was a parallel- | 
ism existing between these groups in their sub- | 
One singular fact he would | 
ordinate members. 
remark with regard to the representation of num- 
bers in certain parallel groups of animals. It was 
well known that the jelly-fishes (Acalephze) had 
their parts arranged upon the number four, whilst 
the star-fishes (Echinodermata) assumed the num- | 
ber five; but whenever any abnormal forms of. 
these animals were met with, then it was found | 
that the jelly-fishes assumed the number five, 
and star-fishes the number four. The two spheres | 
or groups of the animal and vegetable kingdom 
he called concentrate and articulate. 
The concen- | 
trate was characterized by a tendency to concen- | 
tration, to the formation of an internal skeleton, | 
and a unity of combination. 
The articulate was 
characterized by its tendency to elongation, the | 
formation of an external skeleton and articula- | 
tion. In the application of this theory to the 
highest groups of the animal kingdom, the Ver- 
tebrata belonged to the concentrate sphere, and | 
the Invertebrata to the articulate sphere. 
the vegetable kingdom, the Exogens represented 
the concentrate sphere, and the Endogens the 
articulate sphere. In descending to groups of 
less value, the same opposition of the spheres in 
parallel groups might be observed as in the Amor- 
phozoa, which represented the concentrate sphere, 
In- 
and the Echinodermata the articulate sphere in_ 
the animal kingdom. In groups of ordinal value, | 
the two great orders of fishes might be given—_ 
the osseous fishes representing the concentrate, | 
and the cartalaginous fishes the articulate spheres. | 
As an illustration from the vegetable kingdom, | 
the Rosaceze and Leguminosz might be taken. | 
The former exhibited the concentration and other 
properties of the concentrate spheres, as seen in| 
their fruit; whilst the latter exhibited a ten- | 
dency to elongation, the formation of an external | 
skeleton and articulation, as in the articulate | 
sphere. This representation of the spheres was 
also evident in genera and even species.” How | 
a rose-hip resembles a horse and other animals 
which have a backbone and ribs, and how a pea- 
pod resembles a slug, an oyster, a medusa, and 
other animals which have no backbones or ribs, 
we confess ourselves too obtuse to understand ; 
but even though the resemblance were quite per- 
ceptible, it refers to but the seed of plants and 
to the whole body of animals, and seems fitted to 
throw utter obscuration over all our best notices 
