1228. The aberration is recognized either from the position of the lobes or petals that have been left remaining, or from comparison of the number in other parts, in the calyx and capsule.
1229. The quaternary corolla is a quinary without the uneven leaflet.
1230. The hexapetalous is a doubling of the tripetalous, corolla. There are two whorls of petals, provided the calyx has not become corolla-like in character. Both cases are demonstrable through the alternating arrangement of the parts.
1231. The number eight is a doubled four.
1232. Nine is indeed in most instances a product of three multiplied by three.
1233. The number ten is a doubled five.
1234. In every number of petals the law of unequal development consequently prevails.
1235. The original arrangement of the parts of the corolla is bilateral, and therefore symmetrical. In the papilionaceous corollæ this originally symmetrical arrangement is most perfectly maintained. They repeat the position of their pinnate leaves.
1236. This symmetrical arrangement is shown even in many tubular, as in the labiate and personate, corollæ. The trifid lower lip is the standard and wings; the bifid upper lip, on the contrary, the keel.
1237. The small liguliform petal of the lettuce's corolla is a tubular corolla entirely slit up; it is therefore mostly quinque-dentate.
1238. Corollæ which have only a single petal (the tubular-shaped corollæ should not be styled monopetalous, but those which actually have a single petal to the corolla) are indeed to be regarded for the most part as an odd leaflet; yet still much variety appears to take place in these developmental arrests. Thus here no division of the fibrous bundle was attained, or the lateral leaflets have wholly disappeared.
1239. In many this one leaflet also is arrested, and the corolla is wholly wanting. Such a corolla is to be viewed as a stem with radical, but without ramular leaves.
1240. It is not a matter of indifference whether the single involucre that is left remaining be called calyx or corolla; the distinction between both is philosophically correct, though at the same time also it may be frequently difficult to determine. Colour and relation to the stamina and fruit determine much; but respect must be also paid to the whole idea of the plant, whether it has radical leaves or not, whether the leaf-ribs do or do not ramify. Alternating stamina afford evidence of its being the corolla.
COLORATION.
1241. As the colour ranges parallel with the import or quality of the matter, or since the matter and colour are of one and the same kind, so also must this hold good of the colour of the light-flower.
1242. As the corolla only, and not the calyx, is the proper light-organ, so also will it only obey the light in the coloration.
1243. The corolla can no longer be coloured green, for it is no longer a leaf. Now that which obtains another signification, which passes over into another element, must, with the function, lay aside also the old colour. The corolla is besides the perishing, fading leaf; as this begins to turn yellow or red in the autumn, so does the corolla immediately at its origin. It is a born autumnal leaf.
1244. The whole plant must be regarded as a green synthetic colour; the corolla as the analysis of the Green.
1245. The first division of the Green is Yellow and Blue. These two colours are the first which make their appearance in the corolla.
1246. Yellow is the earth-colour, corresponds to the root, and consequently indicates the lowest colour. Yellow corollæ are less developed than those which are otherwise coloured. The corollæ of spring flowers are therefore yellow; so likewise is the middle of the corolla, as is specially exemplified in the disk of the Syngenesious plants.
1247. Blue is the second colour of corollæ in the scale of dignity, or rank. Blue is displayed on the better developed corolla, and is frequently the colour in the rays of the Syngenesiæ. Blue belongs to the temperate zones.
1248. If Yellow and Blue be the divided Green of the leaves, the complementary colour to that of the corollæ must thus remain in the trunk. The trunks of plants having blue corollæ should therefore be yellow; those with yellow corollæ should furnish blue colouring matters, like the Woad.
1249. Red is the third corolla-colour, the true light-colour, in the which properly all corollæ have been immersed; and if they exhibit any other colours, these should be viewed only as instances of aberration from Red. The Reds are the splendid colours, which develop themselves in the middle of summer; in flaming red mantles are the flowers of the torrid zone veiled.
1250. Finally, the form triumphs over the colour. The light has in Red done everything which it could do for colour, having allured as it were all the colours out of the plant; it now, on the contrary, bestows its attention upon the form and delicacy of the substance. The white colour makes its appearance in antithesis to the red, and is mostly associated with very delicate structure.
1251. The cells of the red corollæ are replete with starch-granules, but those of the white are quite empty. The yellow and blue corollæ range in the middle. Red is a superabundance, White a deficiency, of nutriment. The most noble and beautiful corollæ, as well as the lowest also, may therefore be white. White and red are the general colours for all families of plants, but yellow and blue are special colours. In general the trunk is green, the corolla white, the seed black. The mediate stages are red, yellow, and blue.
STAMEN-FILAMENTS.
1252. At length we come to the last work achieved by the light in the corolla, or to complete separation of the systems or tissues. If ever bundles of fibres may entirely separate from the cellular substance, this is possible only in the corolla, as being the final light-organ. Separation must, however, be attained: for thus far do the claims of light extend. But no development remains stationary before it has corresponded with the operations of the developing agent.
1253. In the corolla, as being the highest kind of leaf, the ribs, as the fibrous fascicles, must finally separate themselves from the leaf-substance as cellular tissue. The corolla is a double organ.
1254. In conformity with the whole structure of the plant, the ribs are placed internally, the membranes externally.
1255. The leaf-ribs, isolated and perfected as a particular organ, are theStamen-filaments.
1256. The leaf-membranes, or probably the phyllodia, isolated and evolved into a particular organ, are the corolla-petals. These compose in the strongest sense the corolla. The filaments consist for the greatest part of spiral fibres, and the corolla-petals of the finest cellular tissue, which may be almost designated as granular. This then would be the rational import of the corolla and its stamen-filaments. Both are of similar production; they exhibit like substance, colour, and delicacy, with cotemporaneous development and cotemporaneous death.
1257. Not only are the ribs of the corolla, but those also of the calyx, liberated to become filaments. There are calyx-and corolla-filaments.
1258. As ribs, the filaments must stand in the middle of their petals, i. e. opposite to them.
1259. Filaments, which alternate with the parts of the corolla, are consequently calyx-filaments; such as alternate with the lobes of the calyx, or stand opposite to the petals of the corolla, are corolla-filaments.
1260. Most filaments, and consequently the calycine, are alternating in their arrangement. Most corollæ therefore have no longer strength sufficient to produce filaments.
1261. Flowers provided with opposite and alternating filaments have consequently two circles of them, as is the case in many Pinks. With the determination of the number of filaments the race has been therefore specified.
1262. The number of filaments stands in relation to the parts of the corolla; therefore three and five are the prevailing numbers.
1263. There is no absolute number in the filaments, but only one of relation. Corollæ with three petals have invariably also three filaments, and those with five of the former, the same number too of the latter.
1264. The number of filaments is always the simple or multiple of the parts of the corolla. Three calyx-or corolla-parts have 3 × 1 or 3 × n, filaments. 6 is not 6, but 3 × 2; 9 is 3 × 3; 10 is 5 × 2; 20 is 5 × 4; or 5 × 3 + 5 × 1, and so on.
1265. The filaments do not simply follow the number, but also the conjunction, position and arrest, of the corolla. They are epigynous, peri-or hypogynous.
1266. In irregular corollæ the filaments are usually abortive; as in those of the orchideous, labiate and papilionaceous plants.
1267. The arrest of the filaments usually stands ininverse relation with the corolla. In the case of a larger-sized petal the filament is small, and, on the contrary, larger in opposite parts of the corolla.
ANTHERS.
1268. The corolla obtains its last function in the production of the highest electrical bodies, which it exhales as sweet odours. Ætherial oils ascend out of the corolla into the air.
1269. The filament, as a leaf-rib that has become free, is a moribund ramuscular extremity, which still strives, according to the law of pinnation, to produce three buds, whereof, however, the terminal one is in general arrested, and the two lateral scarce attain unto apertion.
1270. The two lateral buds of the filaments are theAnthers. They mostly open in a spathose manner, because they have not strength enough to develop themselves as perfect gemmæ or buds.
1271. The anthers are to be regarded as follicles, which mostly rupture upon the dorsal or external aspect.
1272. The starch-flour, which forms the precipitate termed albumen in the seed, here obtains in the light-organ electrical properties, and is calledpollen.
1273. The pollen has a light-function in the plant.
1274. The function of the pollen must be differencing, thus vivifying and secernent.
1275. The principal antagonism of the pollen is with the pistil, upon which it must therefore act in a properly differencing manner. The pollen does not hang, like the seed, by a stalk or pedicle to the wall of the anther, but is exudated from it like chemical bodies. It is nevertheless a vesicle, like all organic parts. This vesicle consists of two membranes, and contains yet smaller vesicles, which are calledfovillaor pollen-viscus. When the pollen comes into contact with the moist surface of the stigma, its external membrane ruptures, and the internal with its contained fovilla protruding in the form of a tube, penetrates the style in many instancesdown to the seed, whereby the germ first becomes developed or self-subsistent.
2. PISTIL OR OVARY.
1276. If the corolla be the light-flower, the stalk-flower is heat-flower.
1277. The stalk-flower, as being a repetition of the stem, must be developed later than the leaf-flower. It consequently stands superiorly upon, and so far within, this. The corolla is related to the stalk-flower like circumference to centre.
1278. The stalk repeated in the flower is theOvarium,germenorpistillum. It is frequently converted into wood in the nut and becomes hardened into stone.
1279. Nevertheless, the pistil like the corolla is a leaf-formation, because everything that originates subsequently to, can be none other than, the leaf. It is a leaf-bud under the idea of the stalk. The pistil is thus a leaf-whorl like the corolla, and one which is subject to the same fatalities, only with this difference, that its leaves are wont to open first after it has withered, and consequently through physical forces.
1280. Every leaf that has been closed in a vesicular or tubular form is afollicleorcarpel. There are therefore uni-, bi-, and tri-locular ovaria, &c. The loculi or cells of the ovarium are none other than closed carpels. As many therefore as there are of the former, so many are there of the latter, and vice versâ. The septa or partition-walls are none other than the involuted edges of the closed and confluent carpels.
1281. Uni-locular ovaria consist therefore only of one leaf. The legume is only a compressed carpel.
1282. Every carpel or every cell has its raphé or suture directed inwards or along the axis of the flower. For the leaves are always so conjoined that the two halves of the upper or inner side stand counter to each other.
1283. All other sutures are adventitious and, by their mode of dehiscence, determine those parts of the ovarium which are called valves. These sutures are eitherdorsalor on the back of the carpel, e. g.capsula loculicida;conjunctive, where two carpels abut against each other, e. g.capsula septicida; or finally, between both by the side of the dorsal suture, so that the valve springing up resembles a shutter, as in many siliquæ or pods.
1284. The columella of the ovary is none other than the internal edge of the carpels from which the leaf-wall has been freed.
1285. Each carpel-leaf is to be regarded as the common petiole of a pinnate leaf, upon whose lateral petioles the seeds depend. The seeds always hang therefore upon the inner angle of the cells.
1286. As the parts of the corolla alternate with the calyx, so do the carpels or cells of the ovary with the corolla; they stand therefore opposite the parts of the calyx or are situated in front of them.
1287. The parts of the ovary follow also the uneven series of numbers, one, three, five. The number two is usually found in irregular, e. g. the labiate, corollæ.
1288. If few cells be present as parts of the flower, the carpels are then to be regarded as arrested. In the personate corollæ three are arrested, but in the papilionaceous, four. The legumen is only a fifth part of the ovarium.
1289. The development of the carpels stands usually in an inverse relation to the size of the parts of the corolla. Thus the legume is situated between the two insignificant petals of the keel, opposite to the large vexillum; in the Personatæ a carpel is situated in the fissure of the upper lip; upon the lower lip, consisting of three lobes, only one carpel is situated, which consequently supplies the place of four, and is therefore also larger.
1290. The stages of leaf-formation are also displayed in the matured state of the ovarium. Theradicalorscale-leafis repeated in thecariopsis; as in the grasses, orachs, nettles, and such like plants.
1291. Thespathe-leafbecomes asiliqua, or hollow capsule, in which forsooth the septa are arrested, and the seeds stand upon the conjoined edges of the carpels,upon their walls, or also upon a mediate replum and placenta, as in the proper Siliquose plants with the poppies, Resedæ, Primulæ and pinks.
1292. The reticular-leaf is perfected into acapsule, where the carpels are so confluent with each other, that they form septa and bear the seeds upon the internal angle or upon the axis, as in the Rues. If these carpels separate, then polycarpal plants, as the Ranunculaceæ, Malvaceæ, Magnoliaceæ, originate. In these the median columella is the elongated floral peduncle. If they separate, without leaving a median columella between them; they are then simply calledfollicles, as in the larkspur and celandine. If this capsule be compressed flat; it is calledlegumen, as in the beans.
1293. The cariopsis generally contains one and that a large seed; the siliqua or hollow capsule is many-or small-seeded; the follicle few-or moderately-seeded; the capsule many-and also few-seeded.
1294. In the cariopsis the seed is attached to the base or apex; in the follicle in a row upon the inner suture; in the siliqua upon the carpellar edges, or their walls, and on a meso-replum or frame; in the capsule upon the inner angle or on a middle axis or column. Seed-bearing alæ to the columella are only the carpellar edges prolonged into the loculi or cells.
STYLE.
1295. What the stamen-filament is for the petal of the corolla, that is the style for the ovarial petal or the carpel, viz. the rib that has become free. As, however, the leaf-formation in the ovary is generally imperfect, so also is the separation of the tissues or systems. The style is not therefore freed at once from its root, but projects only above the leaf-substance.
1296. But as the singular circumstance occurs in the ovary that the midrib is arrested while only the marginal ribs shoot out, so is the style the elongation and coalescence of the two marginal ribs. Every stigma is therefore biacuminate.
1297. There must always be as many styles as the ovary has carpels or cells. If only one style appear, in this case it is then made up of several mid-ribs. In most instances the number of styles is recognized in the number of the stigmata.
1298. As being the rib of the ovary the style is the last ramuscular extremity of the stalk, which is resolved into mucus upon the stigma.
1299. Stamen-filament is related to style, as leaf to stalk, thus as air to earth, as Differencing to Differencizable, as electrism to chemism or rather nutrition. This is the lower comparison; in a true sense they are related as light to heat.
1300. The light is the Active, the heat the Passive; light the Moving, heat the Moveable; light the Vitalizing, heat the Inactive, or that which becomes vitalized; light the spirit, heat the matter—male and female principle. Thus are corolla and pistil related to each other.
3. SEED.
1301. The root repeats itself in the interior of the ovary under the æther-form. The root ascends out of the earth to become an organ of gravity.
1302. After the leaves have been made independent in the corolla, and the stalk in the pistil, the root also separates and appears as a free organ, asSeed.
1303. The seeds are necessarily in the interior of the ovary; for the cellular organ can first appear, after the leaf-and stalk-buds have opened as corolla and ovarium. The blossom is a bulb, the external testa or covering of which is the leaf-, the mediate the stalk-, and lastly, the internal the root-vesicle. The stalk is adherent to the leaves, the root to the stalk; so also the seeds to the ovary, and this to the corolla.
1304. The seeds are developed in the ovary under the same relations in which the root is developed in the earth, namely, in the dark.
1305. The darkness does not allow the chemical bodyto attain unto difference; therefore the sap within the capsule must, instead of separating itself into spiral vessels and leaf-substance, continue to remain there undivided and without form, i. e. in the condition of simple granules, or germs of future cells.
1306. The seeds, like the root, are a mass of cells; like it they contain an accumulation of mucus, but of course more highly-formed, being separated into flour, starch, acid matter, oil, and such like substances.
1307. These seminal substances are deposited upon the alkaline, in opposition to the acid, side of the ovary; just as the root also represents the alkaline factor in reference to the stalk, in which appears the formation of acids.
1308. The seeds are the pinnate leaflets of the ovarian leaves, which continue in the condition of buds. They stand therefore as unclosed vesicles upon both edges of the carpel, as is particularly distinct in the legumens.
1309. As both edges are similar to each other, so there can be no ovary that has fewer than two seeds. In all one-seeded ovaries therefore one seed has been arrested, a fact that admits too of being demonstrated in the majority of cases.
1310. Every seed is placed at the extremity of a lateral rib of the carpel. These lateral ribs are called seed-bearers orplacentæ. If such lateral ribs terminate before reaching the edge of the carpel, then the seeds stand upon the juncture or wall of the carpel. This does not, however, occur frequently, but only in the Siliquosæ, poppies, and some others. The elongated lateral rib, whereupon the seed hangs, is called umbilical cord. It is no peculiar organ, but only the seed-petiole.
1311. The direction of the seeds is possible in five ways, either upright and horizontal, transverse, or rising obliquely upwards and downwards in relation to the axis of the ovary.
1312. Every perfect seed (of Dicotyledons) is none other than a pentifoliar, involuted, pinnate leaf. The shell of the seed is the leaf-spathe orphyllodium, the two seed-lobes are the two posterior pinnate leaflets,while the germinal leaflets, orplumula, are the two anterior pinnate leaflets, together with the odd leaflet. The seed-rib or vascular cord (raphe) is continued into the seed-rootlet or radicle, and this into the petiole of the cotyledons.
1313. Every seed-coat must consist of three integuments; for every leaf consists of the lower and upper membrane, and of the interjacent parenchyma, in which the vessels are dispersed. The external leaf-membrane forms the most hard and coloured covering of the seed (testa), the internal the brown seed-tunic orpellicula; between the two lies the brown fibrous tissue, or desiccated parenchyma with the vessels.
1314. The hilum is the basis of the bud or of the seed-leaf; the seed-hole or micropyle is on the apex of the involuted bud, or rather of the phyllodium, in which the germ lies rolled up.
1315. Umbilicus and micropyle are united with each other by means of seed or leaf-rib (raphe). Both rarely stand opposite to each other, so as that the one should be below, the other above; but the apex of the leaf is usually so involuted that it again reaches the bottom of the leaf, whereby umbilicus and micropyle come into close and mutual approximation, as in the beans. The seed-petiole elongates itself into the seed-rib; this is continued upon the back of the phyllodium or testa, bends round, and returns again to the umbilicus, so as to describe a complete circle. The shell of the seed has consequently the form of the young fern or fern-capsule.
1316. The radicle is the continuation of the seed-rib, which is, however, dismembered itself, moves off, and thereby causes the micropyle to be, or, properly speaking, only renders it, free. The testa or seed-shell is consequently a phyllodium thrown over the germ, but the micropyle is the upper opening of the bud.
1317. The germ of the seed or embryo, namely, radicle, cotyledons and plumule, is therefore only the quinary pinnate leaf without the spathe or testa.
1318. Thus the whole seed, shell and embryo, completely resembles a pinnate leaf with a phyllodium, as we see it in the umbellate plants, only it must be thought of as one so involuted, that the fine leaves adhere reversed in the phyllodium. Seeds may consequently change into leaves. A seed has therefore been formed also in all its parts like a papilionaceous corolla. This resemblance speaks moreover retrogressively, for the petals of the papilionaceous corolla being viewed only as a single leaf-bud. Seeds may therefore change also into corollæ. All parts of the seed are thus an unity, a single pinnate leaf, and it is consequently impossible for them to have been patched up out of what has been called the seed-ovum, namely, the testa and embryo, which would come from some other source or out of the pollen.
1319. The seed is the whole plant in miniature: the root being portrayed in the umbilical cord, and radical leaf in the phyllodium; stalk in the radicle; caudal leaves in the seed-lobes; ramuscule in the cotyledonal petiole; ramular leaves in the cotyledons. Seeds may thus change into an entire plant. The seed is consequently nothing new in the plant, but the repetition of the same under the relations and forms of the root.
1320. It is plain that the seeds must always change into the same plant; for they are indeed nothing else but this. The identity ensuing upon propagation is accordingly nothing singular and incomprehensible; it would be so were it otherwise. With the seed the plant has but reverted again to its primary condition, to the galvanic, mucous vesicle, out of which in a secondary manner the young plant is developed like as is the first plant out of the primary vesicle.
1321. The radicle is not therefore root itself, but only emits rootlets.
1322. The germ or the radicle must observe different positions towards the umbilicus, according as the seed-leaf or the testa has been more or less involuted, and according as the germ is removed from the micropyle.
1323. The albumen or perisperm is no particular organ, but only the deposit from the sap, which the innerwall of the testa secretes. The albumen stands in no organic connexion with the parts of the seed. That therefore which has become connate with the kernel or nucleus cannot be albumen.
1324. The arillus can be none other than bud-seeds of the testa, because it is placed under the phyllodium. It corresponds to the floral involucrum or bracteal scales.
1325. As the seeds are none other than leaves that have remained stationary in the condition of root, so must they pass through the three leaf-stages. There can be therefore only three principal differences in the seed-formation.
1326. The seeds of plants with reticular leaves consist of several leaves arranged symmetrically or in pairs. They have necessarilytwoseed-lobes—Dicotyledones.
1327. The seeds of plants with spathose leaves consist too only of the latter, i. e. the seed-leaves remain encased in each other. They have consequently only one seed-lobe, which also incloses only one plumule—Monocotyledones.
1328. This seed-lobe is a phylloidal leaf, whose parenchyma has been superabundantly filled with farinaceous matter or flour.
1329. That which is named vitellus can be none other than the succeeding counter-leaf.
1330. What in the Monocotyledons, at least in most of them, and in the grasses, is called albumen, is not so, but only the flour of the seed-lobe.
1331. The germination of these seeds is nothing else than an elongating of the spathiform seed-lobe into a culm, from the bottom of which radicles spring forth, as out of a bulb. A monocotyledonous seed is in its structure none other than a small bulb with undivided coverings.
1332. Lastly, the third form of seeds makes its appearance in those plants which have only scale-like leaves. The seed-lobe is wanting in them, and they elongate themselves directly into the plumule or little stalk—Acotyledones.
1333. They are devoid of the distinction of testa and embryo, because, on account of the deficiency of genuine leaf-formation, they are none other than the first. For the embryo is only a small leaf. They therefore include only albumen orgerminal powder, as it is correctly named.
1334. Here belong not merely fungi, fuci, lichens and mosses, but also the ferns, as being those which have only cells or squamoid leaves. For the frond with the spiral vessels does not rank in the category of leaf, but of stalk.
FRUIT.
1335. The fruit is the coalescence or blending of the three parts of the flower, or the seed, ovarium and corolla. In the flower the individual perfection of every part of the trunk was completely attained; the leaves being separated quite freely from the stalk became corolla; the stalk separated from the leaves and root became pistil; lastly, the root separated from all, became the seed. In this manner indeed each organ attained its ratio of perfection; the perfection, however, of the Whole does not alone consist in the perfection of the several parts for themselves, but in the union or combination of these individual perfections. The vegetable trunk, as being a Partial, has been represented in the parts of the flower, but as a Whole, in the fruit.
1336. The fruit is therefore the last and most perfect consummation of the plant, or the whole vegetable trunk repeated as unity.
1337. In the fruit not merely the sum of all vegetable forms is united, but also that of all vegetable matters. It is the whole vegetable body repeated mathematically, physically and chemically.
1338. The fruit therefore is also that part of the plant in which all vegetable bodies have been concentrated into flesh. Now, as the highest vegetable bodies pass over into the next, and consequently into the animal kingdom, and are therefore palatable as food, so is the fruit alsoin essence the sarcocarp. For this is the directly edible part of the plant, that e. g. which does not need being cooked.
1339. The nutritious substance of the fruit can be none other than a highly elevated and analysed kind of mucus, such as starch and gum, sugar and acids. Flour is that which resembles the root, sugar the stalk, acids the foliage; therefore flour is in the seed, sugar in the pistil, and acid in the calyx.
1340. There can be only three kinds of fruit, that constantly accord with the preponderance of the three parts of the flower, as seed-fruit, pistil-and corolla-fruit.
1341. The fruit that has the preponderance of the seed, or where the edible substance resides in the seed, and the ovary itself has become seed-shaped, is theNut. The nut is the cariopsis that has become sarcocarp; it is therefore one-seeded—farinaceous sarcocarp.
1342. In the ovarian fruit the ovarium has become demi nut-like, half corolla-like or fleshy, as in thePlum. It is the carpel that has become sarcocarp—acid sarcocarp.
1343. The fruit, in which the whole ovarium together with the calyx is edible, is the corolla-fruit, theBerry. Only those perfectly soft fruits are true berries which are inclosed by the calyx, as being forsooth a part of the blossom. The berry is the siliqua or hollow capsule that has become sarcocarp. Therefore it has numerous and small seeds—saccharine sarcocarp.
1344. Finally, these fruits combine to form a common fruit, which represents the proper synthesis of all parts of the blossom, or in which seed, ovarium and flower, along with the calyx, have become sarcocarp. This is theApple, a syncarpus. The apple is the calyx become sarcocarp, and as it usually incloses several carpels, it is therefore polycarpal and contains few seeds. It consists of seed, ovarium and calyx, which have become flesh. The apple, as being an unopen calyx-fruit, may probably be regarded as the fruit of the trunk. It furnishes properly drink and food, is the fruit against thirst and hunger—the universal, alimentary sarcocarp. The applecontains all the bodies that have been named, viz. flour, acids and sugar. It is thus chemically also the synthetic fruit, which may be converted into the whole animal flesh, and thus become a true medium of nutrition. The nut is only garbage, the plum and berry, cherry and grape, only drinks or delicacies.
1345. Other vegetable substances, which range lower in chemical development, as mucus, bitter and colouring matters, with resins, are associated for the greatest part in root, stalk and leaves.
FRUIT OF THE FLOWERLESS PLANTS.
1346. The flowerless or asexual plants can have no genuine seed or no embryo. For the genuine seed is the repetition of the blossom under the idea of root. (Ed. 1st, 1810. § 1564.)
1347. That which has been called germinal powder is no seed or germ, but only albumen or perisperm. It has no seed-petiole, has only been exuded out of what has been called the wall of the capsule, and exhibits in its composition no seed-lobes. (Ed. 1st. § 1586.)
1348. What is termed capsule in the Acotyledones is none other than the seed-shell, whereupon it follows of itself, that the so-called seeds can have no umbilical cords or seed-petioles. (Ed. 1st; 1810. § 1573.)
1349. The capsules of ferns are involuted like most dicotyledonous seeds. The ring corresponds to the seed-rib or raphe, the fissure to the seed-aperture or micropyle. The involuted fern-capsule is a repetition of the involuted fern-frond. The little heaps of capsules or sori are consequently not pollen, but a nest of seeds surrounded by an indusium or veil, which, probably, corresponds to the ovary.
1350. The capsule of mosses is an antetype of monocotyledonous seeds; it is a spathe-leaf with the lateral suture; it springs up in a tubular manner similar to grass-leaves, that free themselves from the nodes of the culm.
1351. The hollow columella, which likewise contains germinal powder, is an internal spathe, which corresponds to the germinal leaf of grasses.
1352. The oral teeth are the dissevered parallel strips of vessels in the culm and leaf of the Monocotyledons.
1353. The urn-supporting pedicel is the seed-petiole or umbilical cord.
1354. The calyptra probably corresponds to the arillus and thus to the bud-scales; or possibly to the indusium of the ferns, and thus to the ovary.
1355. The leaf-roses would consequently be the involucral leaves of the moss-stalk; the moss-stalk itself a peduncle or flower-stalk; so that in the upper involucral leaves rudiments might indeed appear of stamina.
1356. In the lichens and fuci the whole trunk is none other than seed-shell.
1357. In the fungi, the antetype of the Acotyledons, it may be almost said that the whole stem is nothing else but albumen, the external layers of which only cling together in a membranaceous manner, and represent a kind of seed-shell. The fungus is an albumen-body, which has coagulated out of vegetable juices. In the fungus, seed, seed-vessel, ovary, blossom, foliage and trunk have become blended into one.
1358. In a perfect blossom the albumen is therefore the repetition of a fungus; the acotyledonous seed that of lichen; the monocotyledonous seed-vessel that of a moss; the dicotyledonous, however, is the repeated fern. It may be also said that the albumen were fungus; the germ, lichen; the seed-vessel, moss; the ovary perhaps, a fern, namely, its indusium.
1359. The life of the plant consists in the co-operation of its functions. The representation of these functions is the vegetable physiology or the theory of vegetation.
1360.Vegetation depends first of all upon the two principal antagonisms of the plant, or those between the tracheal and cellular systems, or between the stem-and rootsystems, sun and planet, air and water with earth, light and matter, electrism and chemism.
1361. The functions divide into those of theæther-organs—blossom, and the planetary organs—stem.
1362. The functions of the trunk are those of the tissues, systems and members; thus first of the cells, vessels or ducts and tracheæ; secondly, of the bark, liber and wood; lastly, of the root, stalk and foliage.
1.Facts.
1363. The phenomena to be regarded in plants bear relation to their constituent parts, and the changes or preliminary incidents which they undergo.
A.Constituent Parts.
The chemical constituent parts of vegetables are inorganic and organic.
a. INORGANIC BODIES.
Elements.
1364. The plant contains all theprimitive bodies; carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. The carbon forms the principal mass, and almost alone constitutes its solid parts. The nitrogen is only present in small quantity, being, as it were, a trace only of the future animal kingdom.
1365. In the plant all theelementsare also active, as the æther, which, through the gravitation of the root, strives towards the middle point or centre of the earth. The light, which imparts the general polarity and decomposition, as well as produces colours. The latter appear to reside in the starch-flour. The heat, that sustains the indifference, promotes the evaporation and the course of the sap, as also protects the plant from being killed by frost or cold. The air that penetrates through the spiral vessels to all parts, and is also met with occasionally inthe hollow stalks, the interstices and cells of the pith and cuticle. It imparts the process of oxydation. The water is the proper mother of the plant, being the medium by which the nutrition is imparted. It contains in a state of absorption some hydrogen and nitrogen, a larger amount of oxygen, and abundance of carbonic acid; besides different salts, mucus, sugar, and acids. The earth, as element, bestows upon the plant a firm station, so that the water-and air-organs continue separate from each other.
Minerals or Earths.
1367. The plant is also a totality in reference to theearths. It contains all the mineral classes, and from each of these indeed the principal or fundamental minerals. It can therefore only thrive in a soil which represents the whole mineral kingdom. Among the earths the siliceous earth is very frequently found in plants, and especially in the graminaceous kinds. This, having been dissolved in the earth by potash and the rich supply even of carbonic acid, appears to be absorbed or imbibed by the plant. The argillaceous earth is scarcely met with in the plant itself; but from imbibing and storing up water for the consumption of the plant, it is without doubt its best and most necessary soil. The talcose earth is rarely found contained in plants; it, however, keeps the soil slacker, by dividing into laminæ, and being present for the most part as mica in sand. The calcareous earth is a more essential constituent part of plants, and is found therein in tolerable quantity, usually combined with phosphoric or carbonic acid. Of the salts, all plants contain a fair proportion of common salt and potash, combined too with carbonic acid; soda with saccharic or oxalic acid; probably also ammonia. Of the acids, carbonic acid appears to be alone contained in a free state in vegetable sap; the other elemental and mineral acids are united to alkalies, talcose and calcareous earths. As regards the Inflammables, almost the whole plant consists of carbon, but contains also some sulphur. Themetals are represented by iron, which occurs in all plants.
b. ORGANIC VEGETABLE BODIES.
1368. These must be regarded as the repetition of the inorganic bodies. The alcohol, which does not indeed occur ready formed in the plant, but is developed out of the sugar, certainly corresponds to the æther. The ætherial or volatile oils, and the balsams and resins that are thence formed, correspond with the air. The mucus, gelatine, albumen, and sugar correspond to water; the wood, gum, starch and vegetable mould, to the earth. Of the organic salts, plants contain tannin, with azetic, benzoic, mucic, gelatic, saccharic, tartaric, citric, malic, oxalic, tannic, oleic, isatic, and hydrocyanic acids. The alkaline bodies are pungent, bitter, stupefying, and saponaceous; the fixed or greasy oils, the wax and the vegetable butters, are to be regarded as organic Inflammables; the colouring matters, as the organic ores.
1369. These bodies intermixed form the compound vegetable matters. What has been called vegetable sap is for plants, what the blood is for animals. It consists for the greatest part of water and mucus, starch, sugar, acids, and salts. It passes over into vinous and then into acetous fermentation. The starch-granules appear to form in the cells.
1370. To the secreted saps belong the coloured milky juices present in particular vessels, and consisting for the most part of water with resins, as in the celandine and spurge. The particular saps, especially those of the fruits, are very composite, consisting for the most part either of mucus, sugar and acids, or occasionally of gelatine and albumen. Solid compound matters are almost universally made up of flour, which consists principally of starch and gum; or they are furthermore mucus in the roots and seeds. The excreted or separated matters, which no longer interpose in the vegetable process, are the etherial oils, resins, fixed oils, colouring matters, poisonous substances, gum, tannin, nectar-juices, and even water.
B.Preliminary Events.
a. WROUGHT BY EXTERNAL INFLUENCE.
1371. The influence of the elements produces different phenomena in the plant. I have felt constantly more inclined to consider, that not merely the descent of the root, but even the ascent of the stalk was simply to be viewed as a mechanical event, or one forsooth effected by gravity. The roots obey under all circumstances the gravity and would grow as far as the centre of the earth, were they to meet with no impediment; and there they would follow the revolution of the earth, and consequently become spirally convoluted upon themselves. It is almost beyond doubt that the water, which sinks downwards and, as it were like that in stalactites, invariably rigidifies or hardens at the radical capillaries, is heavier in the root. The cause of this greater weight depends upon the mucus not being decomposed.
1372. The straight ascent of the stalk also depends upon nothing else than gravity. The upper drops of mucus become lighter by means of greater heat and by decomposition in light and air, and they are therefore compressed by the heavier in the upward direction. It is always such a small drop upon the summit, which hardens into its uppermost cell. The stalk, therefore, grows upwards through the same forces and in the same manner, as the air-bubbles ascend in a glass of beer. The cause of their becoming lighter resides certainly in the vital process, which nevertheless effects in this respect nothing else than the extension or increase; but yet the cause of the ascent is naught else than the gravity.
1373. Thelightlikewise acts upon the direction of plants and especially that of their leaves; not simply from its promoting growth by elevation of temperature and by decomposition, but obviously in a mechanical manner also; for not only do the branches of plants in a green-house grow towards the window, but most leaves turn themselves the whole day in obedience to the courseof the sun. This turning must, nevertheless, have one and the same kind of cause with the growing towards light; it also is only a conatus or effort unto growth. The upper leaf-cells, being illuminated by the sun, become lighter, and are therefore directed at once, like the apices of the branches, toward the influence of light. The cells that stand perpendicularly upon the surface of the leaf are to be regarded as branches conjoined by growth.
1374. Thesleep of plantsdepends also upon the same influence of the light. The upper leaf-cells sleep during the night, while the lower cells, especially those of the petiole, fill and consequently bend the latter upwards. The sleep of the flower must have the same cause. As likewise the alternating motion of many leaves, as in the Mimosæ.
1375. The motion also performed by the staminal filaments towards the pistil must finally depend upon this unequal replenishment of the external and internal cells.
1376. The coloration of the parts of plants is a result of the decomposition of the starch-granules in the cells by the agency of light.
1377. The operation of theheatis more intelligible than any other. That which is to move and separate itself, must have a certain degree of extension, or must be fluid, namely, aquiform. In a cold temperature the upper saps, not becoming warmer than the lower, are consequently not lighter, and on that account also do not ascend upwards. The mortal freezing of trees descends from above downwards. In other respects plants have, like animals, a self-inherent, though very feeble, process of heat. Germination proves this, in cases where many seeds lie upon each other.
1378. The air acts also mechanically and physically upon plants, by causing motion of the solid parts and by promoting evaporation. Electricity is without doubt active in the spring of the year, and evokes the antagonism between the fabric of the stem and root.
1379. The physical operation of water consists indeed, for the greatest part, in its preserving the solid parts in a supple or pliant state. Its principal office is, however, to convey nourishment to the plant.
1380. The earths act beneficially only upon plants, if they have been all mixed with each other. Mineral salts occurring in moderate quantity in the soil promote growth; alkalies and acids are injurious thereunto. The same holds good of Inflammables and metallic limes.
b. BY INTERNAL ACTIVITY.
1381. That the plant imbibes water, and this indeed in great quantity, by its whole surface is a well-ascertained fact; but it has been by no means equally determined whether it obtains its nourishment simply through the water, or directly also from the air, e. g. the carbon, as well as the nitrogen, from the carbonic acid. The principal imbibition, however, takes place through the root; but experiments that have been made upon this subject leave it doubtful, whether in this case it is simply mucus, extract from the humus or vegetable mould, or simply carbonic acid that has been absorbed.
1382. It is moreover a fact that the green parts of plants exposed to direct sun-light consume or take in carbonic acid, and develop or give out oxygen; on the contrary, during the night, and even in cloudy or gloomy days, they absorb oxygen and exhale or develop carbonic acid. Now, as there are far more gloomy or at least cloudy than clear days, it thus becomes evident that far more oxygen has been taken up, than separated, from the air. During germination oxygen gas is consumed and, on the other hand, carbonic acid developed.
1383. The saps ascend upwards, and chiefly indeed, in the liber; on its passage different substances forming from it, which appear especially in the fruit in greatest proportion and variety.
2.Processes.
1384. The tissues of plants form three formations, which must be similar in their functions, and can only exhibit subordinate differences. The cell-formation is displayed in the cellular tissue, in the bark and root. The vascular formation in the vascular tissue, in the liber and stalk. The tracheal formation in the tracheal tissue, the wood and the leaves. There can accordingly be only three principal functions in the vegetable stem, and of these each will display minor differences.
A.Cellular Processes.
a. ROOT-PROCESS—ABSORPTION.
1385. As the root is the cellular organ proper, so in it principally resides the water-process or the commencement of chemical elaboration and analysis. Now the chemism in an organic body is called digestion.
1386. The root is the mouth or pharynx of the plant, and is therefore principally concerned with absorption. Its process is therefore the formation of mucus, or as it were of salivation. The root cannot, however, create mucus, as it was created at the conclusion of the earth-metamorphosis in the sea; it can absorb it or in the highest degree compound it out of the constituent parts.
1387. The process of the formation of mucus is a process of putrefaction; the function of the root consists accordingly in supporting a constant process of putrefaction. The soil in which the root stands must contain substances susceptible of, and the conditions necessary to, putrefaction. These substances are organic matters and water; the conditions heat and access of air. Such a soil is called humus or mould. In a pure, dry earth, no root can thrive.
1388. Carbon, from its being the earthy body, is the principal one in the formation of mucus, and the basis also of the vegetable bodies. A root can develop itself, if it stand only in a soil such as the calcareous, whichcontains carbon and water. The calcareous soil is as it were an original mould. It is probable that the calcareous earth is constantly decomposed by the root and its carbon absorbed. The calcareous earth is again neutralized by the carbonic acid of the water and air.
1389. There can be no doubt that the root also abstracts carbon from these elements, and converts it into mucus, or probably separates it from carbonic acid. The mucus approximates the animal nature, so that the root in its constituent parts, in its smell, and even in its structure, exhibits animal properties; animal substances therefore are also the best nutritive media of plants.
1390. That which putrefies most easily is the best manure.
1391. Through the process of putrefaction many kinds of antagonisms and attractions, by which the absorption takes place through the root-filaments, are aroused.
1392. The root has not merely one orifice for absorbing, but it imbibes upon the whole surface, from its being still immersed in the chemical menstruum. The integument of animals does the same.
b. BARK-PROCESS—EVAPORATION.
1393. The bark, as an organ of cellular tissue, which is placed wholly in the outward direction, must principally exercise the process of absorption and evaporation. Now, as there are two kinds of bark, a root-and a stalk-bark, or a water-and air-bark, so upon the former will the business of absorption chiefly devolve, on the latter that of evaporation.
1394. As the bark of the stalk possesses stomata, which are wanting in that of the root, so is this a probable reason for these apertures being organs of evaporation. This opinion is corroborated also by aquatic leaves being without stomata, while they occur in the leaves exposed to air.
1395. Meanwhile the stalk is of a twofold character; it is only the root that has ascended into the air. As an aerial root it absorbs. Without doubt the stalk absorbsthe same as the root, namely, moisture from the air and carbonic acid. Experiments prove it.
c. CELL-PROCESS—DIGESTION.
1396. The cells are the crystallized drops of mucus, the fundamental mass of the vegetable and consequently the water, which converts itself into the Earthy, or wherein the Solid has been elaborated and precipitated. They construct the Solid that has been absorbed into new cells. But the Solid can only assume other forms by means of water. The solution, however, with mixture of bodies and formation into globules is digestion. The cells are thus the stomachs of which the plant has millions like mouths.
1397. The bodies absorbed must move in the cells; for chemical solution and mixture, being itself nothing else than separation and union of atoms, is consequently motion. In a single cell the motion must be upon all sides, because the atoms are attracted and repelled from all points of the cell-wall. In cells, however, which are united with others and therefore subjected to longitudinal polarity, this motion must be performed in accordance with the axis of the cells.
1398. This motion proceeds to and fro, because the extremities of the cells have different polarities, and therefore repel the same atoms, which they have before attracted. In the cells the mucus appears to be converted into starch-granules.
B.Vascular Processes.
a.Vessel-process—Conveyance of Sap.
1399. The vessels or intercellular passages conduct the sap, or the water of the plant. Their function is therefore the continued conveyance of the sap that has been absorbed from the root, and rendered solid or consistent by the evaporation going on in the bark and elaborated by the cells.
1400. The vessels of plants are notwithstanding to be compared with the lymphatic vessels of animals, in so far also as these are distributed throughout the whole body, and convey the sap simply in one direction not in a circle.
1401. As the passages between all the cells are in all directions, so the vegetable saps or fluids flow in all directions, and not to one centre as in the animal. Plants have no heart. The sap pursues a tolerably rapid course in the vessels. A fading or drooping cabbage, two feet in length, can gradually become erect in a few minutes after being put to soak in water. In other respects the course of the sap in the vessels may be seen in many plants under the microscope.
b.Liber-process—Mixture of Sap.
1402. In the liber, as being the mass of intercellular passages, the sap contained in the vessels principally accumulates, as in the thoracic duct of animals; in it the matters have not been simply conveyed and dissolved, but also mixed and converted into true vegetable sap, into blood.
1403. The tubes of the liber are those by which the chemical life is sustained.
c.Stalk-process—Secretion.
1404. The stalk is the root planted in air, and consequently its process is the differenced process of putrefaction, in which the mucus becomes further evolved.
1405. The analysis chiefly occurs in the stalk; the mucus, or rather the starch, becoming converted into sugar and acids.
1406. Sugar is the mucus of the stalk, and is found in every vegetable sap, especially that of such plants as are characterized by the systems of the stalk, and have not yet attained the formation of the reticular leaf, as the Monocotyledones, e. g. the grasses.
1407. The sugar originates from a process of fermentation; the process of the stalk must consequently be regarded as a vitalprocess of fermentation.
1408. The process of fermentation is that of putrefaction carried on in the air, or the polar process of fermentation. Both processes consequently observe a polar relation towards each other.
1409. The sugar-process passes over finally into acidification.
1410. TheInflammables, as the ætherial oils, balsams, and resins, are formed in the antagonism of the sugar or of theacids. Here also belong most of the peculiar vegetable matters, as the milky saps, colouring matters, medicinally active bodies, poisons, and the alkaloids.
C.Tracheal-processes.
a.Leaf-process—Inspiration.
1411. In the foliage the woody rings have issued freely into the air, in order that they may offer their whole surface to its influence, and thus become electrified and oxydized.
1412. The leaf is the free, external organ of respiration to the plant; it is itslung. Through the leaf the air, and chiefly its oxygen, is transferred into the plant, just as it is through the lungs into the animal.
1413. The leaves take in oxygen gas; this is theiressentialfunction, and not that of exhaling it.
1414. The leavesonlyexhale oxygen gas when exposed to light. The development of oxygen in the plant is accordingly a light-and not an air-process. In consequence of this the leaves give out oxygen gas only during the day, but during the night and even upon gloomy days, where not the light but only the air is active, they take in oxygen and give out carbonic acid.
1415. The light develops the oxygen gas out of the plant in a perfectly inorganic manner, like as from every water, that can be set in a process of tension.Rumfordhas developed by simple glass tubes oxygen gas out ofwater. The oxygen gas of plants is therefore a result only of the decomposition of water in an inorganic manner by the agency of light, or virtually the separation only of the oxygen that is clinging to the water.
1416. Through the process of respiration in the plant carbonic acid has been formed and excreted. For the mucus becomes oxydized, and thereby the process also of fermentation, the product of which is carbonic acid, is promoted.
1417. The respiratory process of the leaves is the perfected process of fermentation in the stalk, in which finally, namely, in the fruit-saps, the separation of both the products of fermentation, the vinous and acetic, is prepared.
1418. Just as acids and sugar originate in the stalk, so in the foliage does their electrical antagonism, or the ætherial oils and perfumes. Sweet scents or perfumes are properties of the air, and therefore originate also with the aerial process. This is retrospectively a proof that the leaf-process is the respiratory process.
1419. Through the leaves, with which the whole surface of the earth is covered, the planet respires, and thereby the surface of the earth principally obtains its electricity.
1420. Vegetation must therefore effect an important change in the earth's electricity. The earth must be differently polarized after, to what it was before, the fall of the leaf.
1421. Thereby the northern hemisphere is differently polarized to the southern, because the latter has less soil than the former.
b.Wood-process—Nutrition.
1422. As most of the spiral vessels are collected together in the body of wood, and finally in the leaves issue forth quite free and naked into the air, so must the wood conduct for the most part air into the plant. The polarization of the other systems, of the liber and the bark, must therefore proceed from the body of wood.
1423. The greatest amount of induration must originate in the body of the spiral vessel, because in it the process of oxydation takes place in the most active manner. From the same cause the process of nutrition must also be supported by it in the most powerful manner. The wood is the chief seat of nutrition.
c.Tracheal-process—Oxydation.
1424. The structure of the spiral vessels, their resemblance to the tracheæ or air-tubes of insects, their distribution throughout the whole trunk, the air they contain which is found decidedly free in the plant, leave no doubt that the tracheæ are air-conveying organs, and consequently have, like the arteries in animals, the process of respiration directly intrusted to them.
1425. Now through the process of respiration the general polarity, and consequently the cause or fundamental principle of all life, enters the plant.
1426. The tracheæ penetrate or traverse the whole plant from the apex of the root to that of the flower. Their operation must therefore also extend through the whole plant.
1427. The tracheal system must also govern the plant by polarity, and thus in an immaterial manner.
1428. This polarity acts simply in the direction of the plant's longitude, not transversely, like the material fundamental processes.
1429. The tracheæ impart in a spiritual manner the antagonism between the root and fabric of the stem.
1430. As the tracheæ are, or constitute, the highest system of the plant, so must it be them upon which the light principally acts. The material processes of plants are kept in activity by the antagonism of light.
1431. By this only are the instantaneous changes, which follow upon the influence of light or section of the spiral vessels, to be explained. Upon this, therefore, depends the instantaneous elevation of the processes under the influence of a ray of light, and their depression, if only a cloud pass in front of and obscure thesun; hence too does the plant die, so to speak, upon the very spot, if the spiral fibres within the liber be cut through, but the latter left uninjured.
1432. The liber no longer conveys any sap to the divided tracheæ, solely because it has lost the condition to be affected by the light-polarity. On the contrary, a plant does not die so soon, if the liber be cut through, but the spiral vessels preserved. The spiral fibres conditionate consequently the motion and the excitation of the organic processes.
1433.The spiral fibres are therefore, apart even from their function of respiration, or rather because this is the highest vegetable function, that for the plant, which the nerves are for the animal.
1434. The tracheæ of plants do not ramify like the nerves of animals; but if they divide, they separate only as fascicles, which have been liberated from their origin. The tracheæ commence too directly in the mass of cells, wherever that may happen to be, and thus become what governs an organ, exactly like the animal nerves. Their analogy is greatest with the sympathetic nerves. The tracheæ, just as in the animal kingdom, are the mediators, not the founders, of vegetable life.
1435. The principle of motion must reside in the tracheæ, provided that higher, and not merely chemical movements, occur in the plant.
1436. These movements must and can only exist in those organs which consist almost entirely of spiral vessels, and thus only in the highest organs.
1437. Such are the leaves and the corollæ. Is it wished to compare the corolla, apart from its sexual relation, with an organ in animals, it can only be contrasted with the highest nervous organ. The corolla is the brain of plants, that which corresponds to light, but which here remains stationary upon the sexual stage. It may be said that what is sex in the plant, becomes brain in the animal, or the brain is only the animal sex.
1438. The most general function of the brain is,however, feeling or touch combined with motion. If the corolla could attain to a sensorial function, it would be to that of touch.
1439. It is conducted thereto; but at the instant, when it is indulged in feeling the mental capacity of the animal, it sinks down exhausted and dies. It is punished for the risk that has been run in wishing to attain unto self-cognition.
1440. Motion and touch are revealed only in the highest organs of the plant, or in the stamina. The filament moves upon the pistil and touches it with the pollen, which at that instant, however, is scattered in small particles, and leaves behind the filament in a withered state.
1441. The motion performed by the filaments appears to be a simple operation of the irritability in the tracheæ that have become soft, without undergoing chemical decomposition, but probably by sudden influx of sap, induced by the tension of air in the spiral vessels.
1442. In the highest, or the pinnate, leaves, movements, which are probably a result of the tracheal irritability, also occur, but are devoid the object of coming into contact with, or of touching, anything. The sensitive plants, as Hedysarum gyrans, move their leaves, not from any intrinsic determination upon their part, but in accordance with an antecedent stimulus, and thus not voluntarily, but probably through the influence merely of polar tension. The movements of leaves are convulsions of plants, although too an afflux of sap be caused or induced by the stimulus.
SAP-MOTION.
Galvanic Process.
1443.The motion of the sap is imparted through the antagonism of the respiratory and digestive processes.For these two processes are the combination of the Chemical with the Electric, which is the galvanism.
1444. The galvanic poles attract and repel the fluidity;thus the vegetable sap is attracted by the root and by the stalk. But the differencing or the oxygen pole is the stronger of the two. The determining principle of the movement of the sap resides consequently in the stalk, and the chief direction of the sap-motion tends upwards.
1445. At times, when the air-polarity is elevated, the sap also ascends more rapidly. As in summer, upon clear warm days. It ascends slowly upon gloomy and chill days. That in this also light and heat are playing their parts, is self-intelligible. Thereby the upper particles of sap become lighter and ascend, being pressed upwards by the lower and colder particles. As they are nevertheless by no means changed, this is a proof that, during the time so employed, polar forces also act upon them.
1446. But the root has also the endeavour to attract the sap; but as its pole is feebler in character, the stalk draws the sap from the ultimate extremities of the root into itself. If accordingly the polarity of the air becomes weaker, while the plant is losing its leaves or the organs of polarization; so is it easy to imagine why the motion of the sap becomes slower. As, however, the aerial polarity is always stronger than that of the earth, the sap must thus in winter also take the same, or upward, direction.
1447. A fall or descent of the sap can therefore never take place abstractedly forsooth from the root, in which it sinks by its own gravity. How a part of a plant, e. g. a twig, could continue alive, were the sap to have fallen or receded from it, is not to be conceived. It does not follow from what has been just stated, that movements of sap should not take place in all directions, and consequently too downwards; they must indeed occur rather than otherwise, and that indeed upon all sides; only the principal track or course of the sap must always pass in the direction upwards.