1037. The Vegetable Kingdom is the individual development of the three planetary elements.
1038. Phytogeny represents the developmental history of individual plants, or, properly speaking, the idea of the plant.
1039. To the plant belong all the definitions that have been hitherto deduced. It is an organism fettered to the earth, is developed only apart from water, only in the dark, in the earth; is associated with the metal, with the carbon; is a magnetic needle that has been attracted out of the earth into the air towards the light. Seeds germinate better if they have been protected beforehand from the access of light; the radicle sinks, indeed, into the earth, because it obeys the gravity, the quiescence or rest; but it is therein maintained, because it is there humid and dark. This is a reason that has not yet been connoted, for the plant having been fettered to the earth. There are indeed plants which also take root in water, but the water is still darker than the air. The root has, in this respect, completely the character of the metal, that is a child of darkness.
1040. Consisting for the greatest part of carbon, plants are associated with the pit-coals, through these pass over into the carbon of the clay-slate rocks; finally, through the black-lead unto the iron. In like manner, throughtheir hydrogenous import, they pass over into the inflammable asphalts, and through these unto sulphur. Metal and sulphur have, in the Geogeny, announced themselves as the precursors, or harbingers, of the vegetable world. In this respect, also, can the vegetable kingdom be regarded as the mineral kingdom, that, having continued to grow, has become alive. The ore, which becomes organic, becomes carbon or plant.
PARTS OF THE PLANT.
1041. The character of each development consists in the separation of the Indifferent or Chaotic into its ideas or actions, i. e. the development of every system is first completed, when it is divided into as many substantial systems as it numbers factors, or has processes in itself.
1042. Although the plant is only essentially a planetary-organism, it must yet be developed unto an æther- or light-organism; and it therefore divides into planetary- and solar-or light-organs.
1043. The planetary organs are those that have the earth-, water-, and air-process above them, and which are made known in the root, the stalk and foliage, which together constitute the vegetable stem.
1044. The light-organs begin to be stirring in the blossom, and are divulged as sexual organs. They are a repetition of the trunk.
1045. The vegetable body divides therefore into two great principal parts, which are synotypes of each other, intotrunkandblossomorinflorescence. If we regard the vegetable trunk empirically; it is then divisible into three stages, whereof each consists of the organs of the three fundamental processes, which seek to separate from each other.
a. The first stage is that of thethree tissuesnamely of the parenchyma, medulla or pith; of thecells,ducts, andtracheæorspiral vessels.
b. The second stage isthat of the shaftor main axis, where these three have separated concentrically intocortex orbark,liber, andwood, constituting the anatomicalsystemsorsheaths.
c. The third stage is that of thecaudexproper or the trunk, in which the three tissues have separated in the direction of the longitudinal axis intoroot,stalkor stem, andleaves, these making up theorgansproper ormembers. The inflorescence divides into two stages, intoflowerandfruit.
d. The fourth stage or that of theflowerrepeats root, stalk and leaves, inseeds,pistiland in thecorolla.
e. The fifth stage or that of thefruitis a further repetition of these three parts of the flower in the nut, plum and berry, unto which, as synthesis, comes the apple.
1046. The vegetable-trunk is the development of the three fundamental processes up to their complete separation or substantial representation. It divides itself into the tissues or the pith (parenchyma), into the shaft and into the trunk.
1047. The plant is a galvanic water-vesicle, and as such earth, water and air. Upon this vesicle it is, however, the earth-element that chiefly acts. While the earth seeks to encroach upon the vesicle, the magnetic process becomes active therein, and it enters into opposition with the air. The vesicle becomes now determined by two elements, by the earth and by the air; it stands itself in the category of the water.
1048. The plant may be characterized as organic water which is polarized upon two sides, towards the earth and the air. The vegetable vesicle must therefore maintain two poles. While it would represent in itself the magnetic pole, it endeavours to identify itself, to obey gravity and merge into the darkness towards the mediate point of the earth; but that it may remain a galvanic pole, it becomes excited by the air, strives to become a Different and to attain the light.
1049. The vegetable vesicle receives two opposed extremities, an identical earth-and a dyadic air-extremity; and thus the plant must be regarded as the organism, which manifests a constant endeavour, upon the one side to become earth, on the other air, upon the one side identical metal, on the other duplex air.
1050. The plant is a radius, that towards the centre becomes identical, towards the periphery divides or starts asunder. The plant is not therefore an entire circle or globe, but only a section of such, a cone, whose apex has been turned towards the centre of the earth, or would become earth-centre. It can therefore have no middle-point. It will on the contrary demonstrate that the animal is the totality of radii, is consequently diameter, and has therefore a centre of its own, or is entire globe. As the whole earth is surrounded by plants, and all their roots turn towards the centre; the whole vegetable kingdom only forms a sphere, composed of infinitely numerous cones. On the contrary every individual animal forms a sphere for itself alone, and is therefore worth as much as all plants taken together. Animals are entire heavenly bodies, satellites or moons, which circulate independently about the earth; all plants, on the contrary, taken together are only equivalent to one heavenly body. An animal is an infinity of plants.
1051. In so far as an organism strives unto identity or to gravity, it seeks to produce the Metallic, the carbon, the Alkaline. The indifferent and alkaline character appears in the earth-extremity of the plant. Mucus and acid bodies are evidenced for the most part in the root. In so far as the organism strives unto duplicity, it will produce the salt, the acid and the Inflammable. Acids and electric bodies are manifested in the air-extremity of the plant.
1052. The two vegetable extremities are accordingly related to each other as alkali and acid, and as carbon and hydrogen. In the air the water is divided into oxygen and hydrogen, acids and oils; in the earth it hardens into earths and carbon.
1053. The earth-end or the alkaline extremity of theplant is theroot; the air-end, or the acid and oily, is the entirestem-fabric, or body. The plant has first of all two cardinal organs, viz. root and stem-fabric. Both together represent the water divided into earth- and air-mucus. The root is the central extremity of the plant, and is therefore prolonged or runs out into magnetic points; the stem-fabric is the peripheric and therefore expands into branches and electric surfaces.
1054. But besides the air, thelightalso operates upon the plant and stimulates it to grow aloft and produce a light-organ. This light-organ can thus originate only upon the apex or summit. It is theflower. The flower can therefore stand nowhere else than on the summit or end of the plant. The light however acts upon many points of the upper surface of the vegetable trunk and elongates the same. One plant can therefore support numerous flowers, but all of these must stand upon an extremity. Wherever therefore a flower may happen to stand, that spot must be regarded as a summit or end. There is thus also, according to the physiological view of the matter, alight-organin the plant, which is its animal pre-affection. The chief antagonism in the plant is in this respect therefore between trunk and inflorescence the former is related to the latter as plant to animal. Were the plant to attain unto animal functions; they could thus only take place in the flower.
I.Tissues.
1055. The tissues are the unseparated organs of the three fundamental processes, the earth-, water-, and air-process.
1. WATER-ORGAN, CELLULAR TISSUE.
1056. If a mucus-vesicle lie upon the ground, it thus continues indifferent upon the lower or dark side, and is only affected by the gravity and the water; the upper side, on the contrary, by the differencing air and light. It is consequently prolonged into the earth and into the air. It must pass over from the round into a linearform. The elongation is not a mere protraction of the vesicle, but an apposition of new vesicles. For it happens through polarization, and thus by infinite repetition of the primary vesicle. The plant is thus a body of infinitely numerous vesicles.
1057. In so far as the plant is a multiplication of the primary vesicle, it consists ofCellular tissue. The anatomy of plants informs us, that there is nothingoriginallyin the plant but cellular tissue, and that other forms first emerge or make their appearance in the sequel.
1058. The cellular tissue indicates the Indifferent in the plant, for it is only an accumulation of the indifferent primary vesicles. In so far as the plant consists thereof, is it indifference—water-plant.
1059. The cellular tissue is only oxydized, desiccated mucus. Chemistry has proved, that the wood is only oxydized mucus.
1060. The cellular tissue being the water organized and saturated with earth, or the organized mucus, has consequently the chemical function in itself of solution, homogeneous production, or formation of mucus. As therefore the plant originates, so does it enlarge. It originates as vesicle, and its growth is a constant origination of vesicles; from the Indifferent, which is the water. The sap contained in the cells consists of water and starch-granules, which constantly circulate therein in a circle.
1061. The fundamental form of the cells is the rhomboidal-dodecahedron (Kieser's Phytotomie); for around a globe only 6 others of equal size can be placed, whereby its 6 lateral surfaces are pressed in, which during the induration impart to it the form of a six-sided column. Above and below these 7 globes only 3 others admit of being placed, whereby 3 point-converging surfaces originate, which thus complete the middle globe as rhomboidal-dodecahedron.
2. EARTH-ORGAN, VASCULAR TISSUE.
1062. So long as the vesicles or cells lie as globes upon each other, triangular interspaces are found between them, which stand in conjunction with each other on all sides. As water is found in these interspaces, it is plain that they do not entirely disappear with the transformation of the cells into rhomboidal-dodecahedra. These spaces are called intercellular passages or sap-tubes,Vessels. In many plants, such as those which contain a milky juice, particular sap-tubes run through a part of these intercellular passages, and are probably formed by condensation of the sap. Both are therefore in a physiological respect of one kind. At bottom also the blood-vessels of animals are naught else but passages in felted cellular tissue.
1063. As the principal polarity of plants has been directed upwards, and the cells therefore been protracted lengthwise; so also the chief direction of the vessels is parallel with the axis of the plant.
1064. The vegetable sap ascends in these tubes, which must be therefore viewed indeed as constituting the earth-or nutritive organ.
3. AIR-ORGAN, TRACHEAL TISSUE.
1065. The plant is not merely earth-and water-organism, but also air-organism; and there must therefore be developed in it an anatomical system, which coincides with the process of air.
1066. Besides the cells and tubes naught else is found in vegetable tissue but spiral vessels; what are called scalariform tubes, annular vessels, dotted ducts, vermiform or strangulated vessels, are no peculiar formations in themselves, but only different conditions of the spiral vessels.
1067. The spiral vessels are the air-system of the plant, and therefore rightly deserve the name ofTracheæ. They exhibit the structure of the air-tubes in insects, and contain, according to the most authentic observations,air, and not sap, except in the period of adolescence, as occurs in the animal kingdom.
1068. The spiral vessels consist of one or several filaments spirally contorted, and held together by a delicate tubular-shaped membrane.
1069. They must be regarded as elongated cells, upon whose parietes the starch-granules have been placed in serial juxtaposition with each other, so as to form spirally-twisted filaments, as is to be plainly seen in many cells and also in Confervæ. This spiral condition originates without doubt from the spiral-shaped motion of the granules in cell-sap.
1070. The ultimate cause of this spiral motion, as well as the position of the parts, appears to reside in the rotation of the sun.
1071. Upon this also depends probably the winding of the stem of plants, with the spiral-shaped position of the leaves and branches, as probably even the contortions of the snail's shell and of the hairs upon the crown of the head.
1072. The production of the spiral form originates from the antagonism of the light with the matter. The number of spiral vessels is therefore less in those parts that are beneath, than in those above, the earth, or less in the root than the stem. The more indeed an organ has been exposed to the air, by so much the more do the spiral vessels preponderate, as e. g. in the leaves.
1073. An organ must necessarily be nobler in character, the more spiral vessels it contains. The plant also that, with more spiral vessels, exhibits them particularly arranged, must take a higher rank. The lowest plants, as the mushrooms, lichens and mosses, consist therefore entirely of cellular tissue; in the ferns therefore only a single bundle of spiral vessels makes its appearance. When plants become nobler, several fasciculi of spiral vessels originate; and in tracing this feature we ascend from the ferns to the grasses and lilies, up to the lower Dicotyledons. In the higher Dicotyledons the packets ofthe tracheæ increase for the first time to such a degree, that they form a closed circle, the fibrous ring or zone of wood.
1074. The tracheæ extend from one end of the plant to the other; many are wont to terminate only in nodes, while these are to be regarded as arrested branches. The air can therefore penetrate through the spiral vessels from the leaves even to the apices of the roots.
II.Anatomical Systems—Sheaths.
1075. These originate by vagination and separation of the tissues in the transverse direction, and prevail throughout the whole plant. The idea of the whole vegetable structure is extremely simple. Originally the plant is a vesicle in water, or cellular tissue in the seed; root and stalk also consist in their main bulk or proportion of cellular tissue, which is called parenchyma. Therein the three planetary processes reside inclosed. Such a plant is still in the recognizable state of the primary organism. In the sequel, however, through the influence of light, the polarity between light and darkness issues forth in the parenchyma, the cellular tissue obtains a linear direction, and becomes elongated into spiral vessels. The spiral vessels form one or several fasciculi, which emerge out of the parenchyma, by which they, and each packet individually, are circularly surrounded. The cellular tissue is as it were the soil, in which the fasciculi of spiral vessels are rooted as proprietary plants and out of which they grow.
1076. The effort of the three vegetable processes, to separate their organs from, and perfect them independently of, each other, is in incessant operation, both from without inwards, as well as from above downwards, because in both cases is light there, darkness here, dryness there, humidity here. The cellular tissue, that has finally become independent in the transverse direction or from without inwards, is calledbark, the self-substantial tubular tissue is calledliber, the non-dependent tracheal tissue,wood.
1. TRACHEAL-SYSTEM, WOOD.
1077. With increased influence of light the tracheal fasciculi also increase, and form a circle of columns in the parenchyma around the centre of the plant. Between the column, externally and internally to the same, is the parenchyma. The more, however, the columns accumulate, by so much the more does it diminish, and whereas the columns previously stood singly in the parenchyma, the appearance is now as if narrowplatesonly of parenchyma traversed between the columns from without inwards. Finally the columns predominate to such an extent and approximate so closely, that theplatesalmost disappear. They are now called insertions of cellular tissue, ormedullary rays. As the tracheæ convey air, and have thus been more exposed to the process of oxydation, they generally harden sooner than in other parts.
1078. Around the fasciculi of spiral vessels the cellular tissue also strives to elongate, and begins at the same time to harden. Such extended cells, in which the light has almost disappeared, are called fibres. Indurated tracheæ and fibres are calledWood. The wood is always in the vicinity of the spiral vessels. It is a production synchronous with the latter.
1079. Only, where spiral vessels are, can genuine wood originate; but it is not everywhere, where they are found, that woody fibres must be also present, although the cells extend around all bundles of spiral vessels. If the degree of oxydation of the cells be slight, they do not harden, but continue herbaceous in texture. The parenchyma has now been separated by a circle of fibrous columns into an external and internal, or peripheric and central. The central parenchyma becomes void of sap and spongy, because the plant imbibing its nutriment on the surface, and the air and the light operating thereupon, the processes conduct it thither. This withered parenchyma is calledpith, which in accordance with its origin merits no physiological consideration,nor is worthy and susceptible of any philosophical construction.
2. TUBULAR SYSTEM, LIBER.
1080. As the plant draws in its nourishment from without, so is the main proportion of the sap necessarily present in the periphery of the spiral vessels. The elongated cells in the neighbourhood of the spiral vessels, and which principally contain sap, are calledLiber.
1081. Liber is necessarily present around every packet of spiral vessels, and thus with fasciculi everywhere dispersed throughout the stem. The liber is only situated beneath the bark, when the number of the spiro-vascular fasciculi is so great, that they form a closed circle in the parenchyma; it is only beneath the bark, in so far as it accompanies the spiral vessels, but can only surround the latter from without. As it is only the woody plants that have been usually examined, the false idea has thus originated of the liber having, as it were from its very essence, to be beneath the bark.
1082. In the liber is the main seat of vegetable activity. For it is soft cellular tissue with open intercellular passages, wherein the sap can move.
1083. Now as every fascicle of spiral fibres is surrounded by liber, such a fascicle must be regarded as a whole plant. A plant consists accordingly of as many plants, as it has or can have tracheal fasciculi. Every plant is a trunk of infinitely numerous plants; for every one can contain infinitely numerous tracheal fascicles. One plant is a whole vegetable world. (Ed. 1st, 1810. § 1065.)
3. CELLULAR-SYSTEM, BARK.
1084. No spiral vessels lie upon the surface of the plant, for where they originate, there the liber forms around them, and this is consequently the External. The surface of plants is therefore necessarily environed by liber, notwithstanding the greater influence of the light. The cellular tissue upon the surface of plants is, however,less rich in sap than the liber around the tracheal fasciculi, because it is too rapidly evaporated and dried up by the immediate contact of the air, light and heat. The surface of the plant is too strongly oxydized by the air, and therefore the cells harden. The sap also decomposes too rapidly and becomes rigid, so that an irregular formation only can proceed from it. The external, more inactive, or irregularly wood-converted layer of cells, is theBark.
1085. The plant has thus likewise three anatomical systems, which are nothing new, but only the repetition or rather vagination of the three tissues; alburnum and cambium are only transitional, not special formations.
III.Organs of the Vegetable Trunk.—Members.
1086. Organs are separated parts of the body, and combinations of single tissues and systems, and are consequently a Whole in Singulars. There are, however, no uniform combinations; but one or the other system asserts its preponderance and imparts the character.
1087. In conformity with the developmental progress of the whole of nature, namely, that of always separating further its chaotically mingled parts, individualizing and yet forming them with the others into a whole, vegetation cannot continue stationary with the partition into bark, liber and wood, seeing that they are always circumscribed and form a body in common; but they must also sever this body itself into as many members as it has constituent parts. This severance makes its appearance in the longitudinal axis, because in this direction the antagonisms of air and light with water and earth are more powerful.
1088. Through the separation of the vegetable trunkthreemembers only can originate; one with the preponderance of cells or of bark, one with that of vessels or of liber, and one with that of the tracheæ or of wood. The cellular tissue has been posited as vegetable trunk in theroot, the vascular tissue as a special member isstalk, the tracheal tissueleaf. In this manner the trunk of theplant divides into three great divisions; more are not possible.
1089. Now the root is the perfected water-organ, because it is always fixed in water; the leaf is the perfected air-organ, because it moves in the air; the stalk is the perfected earth-organ, because it removes the mass out of water and air. Root is a heap of cells; leaf a plane of tracheæ; stalk a bundle of vessels.
1. WATER-ORGAN—ROOT.
1090. By the two polar systems, the earth-and air-system, the cellular and tracheal system, is the development of the plant confirmed. Thereby is it in the next place a twofold organism. By the first system it has been turned towards the planet and immersed in earth and water, by the second it has been turned towards the sun and immersed in the air. The root and the fabric of the stem, or root and stem simply, have now obtained their truest significance. Each is the whole plant, each the whole organism; in the root this is only in its original purity, but in the stem it is upon a higher stage. Root is stem in water and earth; stem is root in air and light.
1091. The root has accordingly more cellular tissue, fewer tracheæ; in the stem this condition is reversed. The root resembles young plants, or such as still rank upon a lower stage, and have but few columns of tracheæ. The root has therefore no marrow or pith. It may be said that it should have no pith, because it is usually thinner than the stem and richer in sap; but it has only the latter character, from consisting for the most part merely of cellular tissue. Root is the vegetable trunk with preponderating cellular tissue. In consequence of the antagonism between root and stem, wherein even their difference consists, the one strives to produce the Chemical, the watery earth or the mucus, but the other the Electrical, the combustible air-bodies.
1092. The root, as producing mucus or infusoria, has therefore in itself the organic process of putrefaction, inso far as the origin of mucus and infusoria is a result of the putridity. It corresponds to imbibition and digestion. To this is referrible the mouldy, and as it were fetid, condition of the root. Through the process of decomposition, which it evokes in its neighbourhood, it kills its nutriment, takes possession of it, and thus originates completely, as does every first organism, out of putrefaction, out of infusoria. To the essence of the root belong therefore not merely food, but the favouring relations of decomposition, as earth and water, whereby the access of the air, as necessary to every galvanism, has not been suppressed.
1093. The earth is not merely a mechanical station for the plant, in order to give it the perpendicular direction, but it is necessary for polar excitation, whereby the decomposition is imparted. A plant placed upright in pure water, although with the roots, necessarily perishes. Darkness is at the same time the lurking-place of putrefaction, as being that which only plays its part in localities where the polarizing and dissevering influence of light is wanting.
1094. The root always passes perpendicular into the earth, on account of its greater weight due to repletion with water. In all zones therefore the root stands perpendicular to the horizon, and thus the whole plant, although this is somewhat inclined towards the sun.
1095. The developmental stages of the root pass probably parallel to the parts of the vegetable stem.
a. In respect to the tissue, there are thus cellular roots, as is probably the case in the fungi, and with the fibrils of all roots; tubular or vascular roots as in the mosses, tracheal roots in the rest.
b. In respect to the systems the bulbs are the cortical or bark-roots; the tubers the liber-roots; the fibres the woody-roots.
c. In respect to the members of the trunk, the turnip is perhaps the genuine root, the tap-root the stalk-root, the so-called aerial roots, the leaf-roots.
2. EARTH-ORGAN.—STALK.
1096. The stalk is the idea of the whole plant, posited under the import of the organ of nutrition, of the vessels. The structure of the stalk is therefore accordant with that of the root. The anatomical systems are alike in both, bark, liber and tracheæ being in the same envelope.
1097. In the stalk, however, the opposition of tissues and systems emerges more strongly, and therefore they all become individualized also to a higher degree. The spiral vessels become more freed from the cellular tissue; the bark is more distinctly divided from the liber; this again from the wood, and in its centre the cellular tissue dries up into pith. As, however, the stalk is the first product of the light-influence, the tracheal system cannot attain as yet entire freedom. The cells have nevertheless been extended, and the intercellular passages are formed into regular tubes. TheStalkis the trunk of the plant with a preponderating system of tubes.
1098. This separation of the tissues and systems, with the endeavour upon the part of each to become individually perfect and isolated from the other, is effected by the air and the light. As root imbibes the mucous or slimy water, and sustains the chemical process in the plant, so does the stalk set the water in motion, since it exposes it to the air and light, whereby the chemical earth-process becomes separated into different saps and elemental bodies.
1099. Through the influence of the air, light and heat upon the stalk, as well as by its antagonism with the root, its elongation is determined. The greater amount of energy of the aerial polarity is in the higher regions; it is thus more excited by these than by the lower, and the bud being lighter grows more rapidly in the upper parts, and obtains an elongated form. The excitation is stronger also upon the side exposed to the light. It grows also more strongly in that direction, and thus the stalk stands indeed upwards, but somewhat inclined from the perpendicular line towards the sun.
1100. The perpendicular direction of the stalk is, however, as mechanically determined by gravity as the root. Paradoxical as this assertion may appear, it is still correct; for if we think of a moist globe, which is superiorly affected by air, light and heat, the upper aqueous or mucous parts are thus lighter, and necessarily ascend upwards through the pressure of the heavy or unheated parts, just as the air-bubbles in beer ascend to the surface. The light it is true can draw them somewhat sideways, chiefly because this side is more heated, more decomposed, and also undergoes a greater amount of evaporation; but the proper cause invariably resides in the ascent of the light parts between the heavy or immoveable. The stalk therefore grows upwards also in the darkness, and then indeed quite perpendicularly, because it has not been diverted by light. Were the light merely the Dirigent, it could not be comprehended, why towards the poles trees still stand tolerably perpendicular, and do not lie completely upon the earth. Were, however, the air that which determines the direction, plants could not thus have been inclined towards the sun, nor could we comprehend why the flowers and also the leaves obey the sun's course. Finally, were neither air nor light the imparters of direction, then the plant could shoot in no other direction than quite perpendicularly upwards, as is done too for the most part by the fungi.
1101. Thewindingof the stalk appears to originate from the rotation of the sun. The next cause is probably the greater heating and decomposition that occurs upon one side. In accordance with this assumption the plants upon the northern hemisphere of the earth must wind spirally upwards from left to right, or from morning towards evening, if our gaze be directed towards the meridian, but inversely upon the southern hemisphere. But this is not the case. May we therefore conjecture that plants, twisted contrary to rule, have been transported from their native soil?
1102. The kinds of stalk follow also, without doubt,the direction of developmental stages of the vegetable trunk. There are therefore cellular stalks in the fungi, vascular stalks in the mosses, tracheal stalks in the ferns. A bark-stalk is the culm, a liber-stalk the scape, a wood-stalk probably the trunk of a palm. A root-stalk is the rhizoma, a perfect-stalk the stem, a leaf-stalk being probably the shrub.
Ramification.
1103. The differencing, severing character of air and light must never be lost from our thoughts, nor also that at a height this character manifests itself more powerfully than on the surface of the earth, where the stem abandons its androgynous position in relation to the root. Through the constant process of differencing the tracheal fascicles of the plant may finally become so independent that they no longer stand in need of the others, and do not merely represent a particular plant, but are perfected also as such.
1104. This dispersion of the tracheal fasciculi will not easily take place upon the earth's surface, on account of its lesser degree of aerial polarity, but at a certain height. If several stalks emerge from the root, the bush orshruboriginates, but if only one, the tree. If the subdivision first commence at a certain distance from the earth, then doBranchesoriginate.
1105. The formation of branches demonstrates in part a great store of tracheal fasciculi, and part by an easy differential capacity in the plant. Both come to the same thing.
1106. Plants devoid of branches are similar or analogous to roots.
1107. The branches again ramify from the same cause by which the stem ramifies. A branch or twig must be regarded as an entire fascicle of tracheæ, which forms superiorly a closed vesicle or bud, that raises the bark, bursts it open into scales and then opens itself. The opening of the external tracheal tubes or vesicle becomes a leaf; a twig can therefore occupy no otherposition than in the sheath or angle of a leaf. Every succeeding leaf upon the twig is in the same manner a ruptured vesicle of tracheæ. As many leaves therefore originate as there are tracheal zones present.
1108. Every branch is an entire plant. All the tissues and systems are found in it. Tracheæ free themselves from the stalk, pass towards the circumference, break through the bark and carry with them the liber, whose external layer again becomes bark. The branch is only an elongated bud. The stalk is the soil or the root of the branches. Branches, that have been cut off and stuck in the earth, grow. There is nothing contradictory, in the tracheal fascicles of the branch growing downwards into the stalk. A branched tree is a complete wood.
1109. From the same cause, or by the influence of water on different situations in the earth, the root has branches. But as this influence is weaker than that of air and light, so the number, density, and length of the roots is less.
1110. The polarization of the tracheal fascicles into branches takes place all around the stalk in one situation. The influence is equal upon all sides. The idea of the formation of branches is the star. All branches have a radiate position around the stalk—all form a verticillum or whorl.
1111. Every other position of branches is only an alteration of the verticillate arrangement.
1112. In most plants the arrangement of the branches admits of being reduced to the spiral line. This position is only the verticil drawn out.
1113. This drawing out takes place through the continued growth of the stalk, in which the bundles of tracheæ, doubtless by the varied operation of light, develop themselves in order, become individualized, and issue from the stalk as branches.
1114. The crucial position of the branches depends upon the same growth of the stalk, but one in which transverse polarities are present. The irregular or dispersed position is most probably the last completion of the spiriform.
1115. The spiriform arrangement stands in relation with the formation of the tracheæ.
1116. The branches of the root observe no such regularity, partly on account of weaker polarity, partly on account of the obstacles placed in their way, at one time by the impenetrable earth, at another by want of water.
1117. The more the stem is differenced, so much the higher is it developed. Thus the richer in number the branches, by so much the more perfect is the stem. The stelliform branches belong to the first development. The plants, that have this arrangement, stand lower in the scale. To this the crucial appears to succeed, as a mediate position between the former and that which follows. The spiriform ranks higher. In it the stem is manifestly differenced more multilaterally. The dispersed arrangement appears to be the highest, because in it the greatest freedom prevails, because the poles have acted on every part of the plant, because they are everywhere in the air and in light. Plants with dispersed branches are organized air; without branches they are organized water as well as earth. Those plants only which have circles of tracheæ or rings of wood, as e. g. the Dicotyledons, ramify; these alone are, properly speaking, a conjunction by growth of many plants, and one that is truly persistent, or that bears fruit several times. The Monocotyledons being devoid of woody rings, do not, or but very rarely, ramify. Most of them therefore die off after they have once produced fruit. The ramification is a multiplication of the plant, in which the buds continue to stand upon the old stem.
Formation of Nodes.
1118. The formation of nodes, as in the grasses, is an attempt at differentialization, that has not, however, attained to perfection. A node is a branch-whorl which has continued to adhere to the stalk. Therefore thetracheæ also terminate in the circumference of the node.
1119. The formation of nodes consequently ranks directly under the stelliform formation of branches. Taken in a strict sense the formation of nodes occurs only in plants with sheathing leaves or in Monocotyledons.
3. AIR-ORGAN, FOLIAGE.
1120. If in the progressive separation of the tissues the tracheæ finally obtain the preponderance, so that they issue forth free from the envelope of cellular tissue, theleaves, orFoliage, then originate.
1121. The ribs of the leaf are the fascicles of tracheæ that have become free, and are still only connected together laterally by a thin layer of cellular tissue.
1122. The leaves can be regarded as gigantic and unrolled spiral vessels, and these again as microscopic and involuted leaves.
1123. As through the root the water-process enters the plant, and through the stalk the earth-process, so does the air-process through the leaves.
1124. It is probably the stomata through which the air is conducted into the tracheæ; the connexion, however, has not yet been proved.
Gemmæ or Buds.
1125. With the formation of branches there is at the same time a diminution of the cellular tissue, and an increase of the tracheæ. Entirely new spiral vessels commence in the branches, and are not continued or prolonged into the stalk. The further indeed the extent of the ramification, by so much less is the quantity of cellular tissue, and by so much greater the number of the tracheæ. It comes at last to this, that the tracheal fascicles, which were from all sides surrounded by dense cellular tissue, are only then loosely connected by a thin layer of such substance. This ramuscule is still therefore only a hollow stalk, consisting of fascicles of tracheæ disposed in circles, and so united by a thin cellular integument or membrane, that the whole forms a vesicle.
1126. This vesicle is aBud. A bud is at bottom none other than the end of a twig that has become hollow.
1127. Several buds are usually involved in each other, i. e. many vesicles of tracheal rings have been encased in each other. They issue gradually forth and become shoots or buds. Buds are bulbs at the end of the branches.
Leaves.
1128. If the bud or the external vesicle ruptures, while the cellular substance becomes consumed at the apex or between two or more tracheal fascicles, it is then manifested as aleaforLeaves.
1129. Then the second vesicle grows forth, becomes petiolated, ruptures and becomes leaf or leaves. In this manner a twig is formed, surrounded in a spiral manner by leaves.
1130. The younger leaves have been originally inclosed in the older, as in their sheaths.
1131. Every perfect leaf, i. e. every leaf-vesicle, must be regarded as the terminal extremity of an entire twig, from or out of the angle of which a new twig grows forth, that again as a bud ruptures, and from which again a twig grows forth.
1132. All leaves therefore range directly opposite to each other. A branch with many leaves is a system of branches, which grow out of each other, like the articular pieces of the grass-culm or straw.
1133. A leaf is a whole plant with all its tissues and systems; with cells, ducts, tracheæ; bark, liber, wood, stalk and branches. The leaf is a tree of special form, a tree, whose branches or tracheal fascicles all lie in one plane and are held together by parenchyma. It is the bodily expression of the position of the tracheal circle in the stem, only ruptured and to the greatest degree attenuated.
1134. In the division of the ribs of the leaf the internal arrangement of the woody fasciculi in the stem has been placed before our eyes, as by the scalpel of an anatomist.
1135. From the arrangement of the ribs of the leaf the structure of the whole plant can be recognized and its character determined. The leaf is the table of contents or index of the stem.
1136. Plants, which have no tracheæ, have also no leaf-ribs—Mosses.
1137. Plants, which have only isolated or non-ramifying fascicles of tracheæ, have parallel leaf-ribs that do not ramify—Monocotyledons.
1138. Plants, which have a circle of tracheæ, or rings of wood, have leaves with ramified ribs—reticular leaves or true foliage—Dicotyledons.
1139. The stronger indeed the ramification of the leaf-ribs, by so much the higher is the perfection of the leaf. The lowest leaf is that devoid of ribs, the higher that with parallel ribs, the highest being the reticular-veined leaf.
1140. The number and forms of the leaves that proceed from a bud, depend partly upon the number of tracheal fascicles, which pass out of the ramule into the leaf, partly upon the form of the leaf-bud.
1141. If the bud be simply ruptured at its apex or only between two fascicles of tracheæ, there then originates the spathiform leaf.
1142. If the cellular substance between several tracheal fascicles be consumed by the severing action of light and by the air, then the bud divides into several leaves.
1143. The fundamental form of the leaf is the oviform, because the bud is to be thought of as being round. Through the elongation or compression of the bud, lanciform, cordiform leaves, &c. originate. Besides it appears, that the leaf-buds, at least those of the reticular-veined leaves, burst in a circinate manner, like the ferns, and unroll themselves. Therefore the leaves are unilateral andclasp the stem inferiorly; or the petiole displays its spathiform origin. In this case the leaf is not a part of a hollow globe, but the entire globe, that has ruptured in the transverse direction at the extremity of the petiole. Such is the case at least in the demispathiform leaves of the Umbelliferous plants.
1144. The primary position of the leaves like that of the branches is thus verticillate, yet always, however, under the idea of one being encased within the other. The leaves are here only the ultimate branches.
1145. If the leaves upon the ramules issue from each other, then this happens in the same manner as with the branches.
1146. The verticillate position of the leaves is therefore the lowest, next succeeds the crucial, then the spiriform, and lastly the scattered.
1147. The spathose leaves are only to be regarded as a single bud, and therefore differ from the whorl, in so far as we regard this as the development of several leaves, that have not, however, been extruded from each other.
1148. Divided leaves originate through a higher operation of light. In them the formation of ribs preponderates, and therefore they rank higher than the undivided.
1149. From this cause the pinnate leaves are the highest.
1150. From the same cause the radical must be worse developed than the ramular leaves. They are usually non-pinnated, undivided, because they have more cellular substance in their composition than the upper leaves. In the leaf-system, consequently, the whole idea of the plant has been recontained; on the earth resides the chemical character, as is evidenced by cellular, dense and misshapen leaves; above in the air, on the contrary, the leaves are more delicate and are divided—indicating an electric character.
1151. The division and pinnation of leaves can only progress according to the odd numbers, 3, 5, 7, because the midrib determines the odd leaflet.
1152. Leaflets occurring in pairs, or equally pinnated, are arrests of development.
1153. The even number or the symmetrical form is unnatural in the vegetable kingdom.
1154. The leaves are, like the young bark, and thus the whole trunk of the plant, green, because the vegetable kingdom represents the lower totality of the earth, the planet, whose synthesis is the water.
1155. From the same cause, the chief colour of the animal kingdom is red, the colour of fire. Thus, plant is to animal, as green is to red.
1156. The division of leaves passes also parallel to the stages of rank in plants.Cellular leavesare the scales of mosses and ferns;vascular leaves, the long riband-like leaves of Monocotyledons;trachealleaves the reticular leaf of Dicotyledons. Thecortical leafis the sheath; theliber leafis probably the fat leaf; thewood leafthe acicular leaf. Theradical leafis the undivided reticular leaf; thestalk-leafthe free or ragged reticular leaf; theperfect leafthe pinnate. Thebracteal leavesrepeat all forms in the thyrsus, since they are floral leaves.
1157. The accessory leaves orstipulesare none other than the remnant of the sheath-formation, out of which all the leaves, and therefore the wings of the leaf-petioles or phyllodia, have issued forth.
1158. The thyrsus has also its series of leaves; the scale-like or radical leaf is involucre and bractea; the vascular or spathe-leaf is calyx; the tracheal or reticular leaf is corolla.
1159. The vegetable trunk, namely, root, stalk, and leaf, is a perfect organism, which can exercise all the functions which belong to its individual life. If it therefore produces anything, that can be nothing new, but only itself repeated. This repetition of itself is called propagation. The organs of propagation are thus none other than a repetition of the organs of the vegetable trunk. The plant thereby steps forth out of its individuality into the province of the genus.
1160. Hitherto we have regarded the plant as simply a planetary organism, namely, as a trunk with water-, earth-, and air-organ. But the primary vesicle does not lie wholly in the dark, but is illuminated upon its apex by the sun. Every operation, however, produces its like; thus in the plant a light-organ must also be developed. As the light evokes heat in the æther, so also does it evoke a heat-organ in the plant. As the heavenly bodies corevolve in æther by means of light and motion, or the gravitation condenses the æther into matter, so also must an organ of gravity originate also in the plant. These organs are not, however, predominant in the plant, because it is essentially planet or vegetable trunk. They can be therefore nothing else than the parts of the trunk itself with the properties of the æther or fire. They are thus a repetition of the trunk, wherein, in place of the material processes of growth, those of the light, heat, and gravity occur. The light-organ excites the heat-organ by polarization unto motion and thereby originates the organ of gravity.
1161. The process in which through polar tension the trunk has been reproduced, as the Whole in miniature, is called sexual process. The æther-organs are thus sexual organs. These sexual organs can only be a leaf-formation, because the last development of the stem is the leaf. The leaf-formations which, by means of polar tension, reproduce the trunk, are theFlower. The light-organ is thecorolla. The heat-organ is thepistil. The organ of gravity theseed. The pollen upon the stigma sets the pistil in a state of tension with the trunk, whereby the sap, out of which the seed attains to perfection, ascends. Without this tension the pistil would not have had strength sufficient to perfect the seed. It would wither ere the latter had obtained sufficient nourishment.
1162. The development of the flower takes place through differentialization, individualization, or complete separation of the trunk-organs. The trunk indeed summons up all power in the leaves, to separate the three vegetable tissues and represent each as a particular organ; only in this formation it does not wholly succeed; for in a leaf the ribs or tracheal fascicles are still held together by cellular tissue. In the first place with the perfect separation of the tissues or, properly speaking, with the ex-organization of each of them unto an independent Whole, the limit of the vegetation is attained and the growth completed. This was the course of the whole of nature; in every system she has proceeded to individual consummation of the factors, to their liberation from chaos; and the developments of the systems were concluded, so soon as all factors became independent, or so soon as every factor had itself become an entire nature. Such was the case in the genesis of elements, and such in the metamorphosis of the earth-element into earths, salts, Inflammables, metals.
1163. This complete severance and individualization can no longer be effected by the air, but must be achieved by the light. The air is itself not the wholly differencing element, but derives its potency only from the light. All ultimate separation and individualization is reserved for the light.
1164. Root and stem are the water-and earth-plant, the leaf is the air-plant, the flower is the light-or rather fire-plant.
1165. In the flower the problem has been solved, of producing an entire plant simply by the light without earth, water, and air, or as it were in a merely spiritual manner.
1166. The plant is a flower that has been posited under three ideas, under the idea of earth, water, and air. As in æther or fire all the elements are dissolved; so are all the elements of the plant in the flower.
1167. The flower is truly, not merely in idea, the whole plant with all systems and formations, positedunder asingleidea, under that of the æther, namely, of the gravity, light and heat, or the fire.
1168. The flower as the æther-organ of the plant is not so independent as an animal, but subordinated to the planetary systems, being only a separation of the parts of the trunk, not a new formation, as in the animal kingdom.
1169. The flower as the highest formative consummation of the plant, or as the highest vegetable organ, is the extremity of the ramules. (Ed. 1st. 1810. § 1176.)
1170. Although the flower is a repetition of the whole plant, namely, of the root, stalk, and leaf; it can still only be a direct transmutation of the leaf. For every Superior proceeds from that which is immediately subjacent. The light-organ can only be developed out of the air-organ, not out of the water-organ. The transition from the water-organ into the light-organ is necessarily indicated through the aerial form. Preparations are necessary, gradual dismemberments must precede, before the isolated consummation can result. The air purifies the organs, in order that they may become participant of light.
1171. The flower is the totality of the leaves of a ramule placed upon the extremity of the latter. For a flower is the whole plant, and is the Ultimate of the plant.
1172. The flower is a terminal leaf-bud. A leaf-bud, after whose rupture the ramule cannot grow any more.
1173. The flower necessarily stands in a whorl-shaped manner, because it is the end of the branch; it is the terminal whorl of the plant.
1174. With the flower the ramule or the plant dies off, partly because it is the extremity, partly because wholly separated tissues cannot live. In the flower therefore the plant reverts to its origin. It is a ramule, whose buds have continued stationary.
1175. The idea of the vesicle lies at the basis of the flower. It is an entire vegetable vesicle, a leaf-bud that has not been drawn asunder. The flower is the last vesicle into which the stalk swells out.
1176. The flower-vesicle agrees with the leaf-vesicle. The form of the flower must pass parallel to the form of the leaves. This has reference principally to the position and number of parts.
Division.
1177. The flower is the synthesis of the entire plant with complete analysis of the organs. Flower, pistil, and seed are the leaves, stalk, and root separated, and yet all combined to form a common organ. This flower regarded in its analysis is the flower proper; in its dissolution it is calledfruit.
1178. The flower-vesicle is according to its essence a threefold vesicle. In it the leaf-system or the air-plant has been represented, but in like manner and of necessity also the earth-and water-plant, or the vesicles in which stalk and root have been taken up into the kingdom of light. Thus there is theleaf-,stalk-, androot-flower.
1179. The leaf-flower is in the periphery, the stalk- and root-flower in the centre of the vesicle. For the former is the metatype or copy of the leaves, the latter of the stalk and the root.
1180. The leaf-flower is the highest and the very first to be developed. It is that, which chiefly corresponds to light; the trunk-flower is, however, the lowest, the last developed, because it is only the trunk that has been prolonged with difficulty to form a flower. It is the child of the heat and gravity.
1181. It may be also said that the leaf-flower is the electrical, the stem-flower, however, the chemical. In the latter the chemical process must still act visibly, it must still be produced mucus; in the former, however, this must disappear and resolve itself into purely electrical bodies.
1182. The flower consists of three leaf-buds. The leaf-bud is the corolla or blossom. The stalk-bud the pistil. The root-bud the seed.
1183. The corolla is the external whorl of leaves, is first developed, has the form of a leaf, is a vesicle,secretes in itself electrical, inflammable bodies, and is directed towards the sun.
1184. The difference between corolla and pistil is that of the two principal tissues, the tracheal and cellular tissue. By the light the tracheal fasciculi become finally separated from the cellular substance, evolved to a higher degree as the child or product of light, and planted outwardly. The corolla is the tracheal circle, which has forcibly gained its freedom.
1185. The pistil is the vascular substance that has become freely evolved, yet to the highest stage; in a similar relation likewise does the seed stand to the cellular substance. In the fruit therefore the flower again reverts to the primary condition of the plant.
1186. The flower and pistil are therefore those very organs which have been most antagonized in the plant. They are in the highest state of polar tension, and stand opposite each other like electrism and chemism, or as light and matter. This antagonism in the Organic is calledsex.
1. FLORAL ENVELOPES.
1187. The blossom is the leaf-formation, in which the separation of the principal tissues is completely attained, where the tracheal fascicles entirely separate from the cellular substance, and become a leaf with free ribs. The cellular substance becomes thecorolla-petal, the rib the stamen.
1188. The blossom passes through the three stages of leaf-varieties before it attains its completion, and divides therefore into three whorls, which correspond to the root-leaves, stalk-, and ramular or perfect leaves. The radical or squamose leaf appears in its repetition asinvolucrumorspatha. The stalk or vascular leaf ascalyx. The perfect or tracheal leaf ascorolla.
a.Involucrum.
1189. As the root puts forth numerous branches, so the involucrum or spatha frequently incloses manyblossoms that constitute the thyrsus or synthetic form of inflorescence.
1190. The thyrsus or dense panicle is the whole ramage or branch-fabric repeated in the involucrum; it is therefore just as manifold as the former.
1191. The inflorescence is still as complex as the arrangement of the branches, because with every flower the ramule dies off or ceases to grow, whereby very numerous and strange relations are brought to light.
1192. The involucrum corresponds to the scale-leaves or bracts, and is therefore as a rule polypetalous. The involucral leaves stand upon a lower stage of development, are for the most part only squamose or spathiform, rarely divided or pinnate.
1193. The involucral leaves necessarily stand, as being the radical leaves of the flower, at the bottom of the peduncles or flower-stalks; each flower-stalk therefore has usually an involucral or bracteal leaf also.
b.Calyx.
1194. The repetition of the cauline or spathe-leaf in the flower is theCalyx. It does not stand therefore at the base of the peduncle, but towards its summit, and is the external bud of the blossom; it is mostly spathiform, rarely or but slightly cloven, and very rarely polysepalous; it is generally green like the leaves. Although the calyx is no essential organ in itself, still it is rarely wanting and is often itself the supporter of the corolla and stamina.
1195. As the calyx is more incomplete than the corolla, so it has usually but three lobes, and if it has five, then they are frequently placed irregularly.
1196. The developmental stages of the calyx are also three. Corresponding to the scale-like leaf or bract, it is only squamiform, as in the catkins of the hazel and fir-cones; corresponding to the spathe-leaf, it is tubular or unisepalous; corresponding to the reticular leaf, it is multisepalous, and mostly deciduous.
1197. The tubular calyx exhibits likewise three stagesof development. At first it is scale-like, confluent with the ovary or epigynous—ovarial corollæ. It is next spathe-like, simply connected with the corolla or perigynous—calycine corollæ. Lastly, it resembles the reticular-veined leaf, being free from both the above organs, or hypogynous—pedunculate corollæ.
c.Corolla.
1198. From the character of the corolla or crown as being a ramular leaf all its properties admit of being deduced. It is the upper leaf-bud, inasmuch as the ramular leaves stand above those of the stalk. It is, on this account too, the internal, inasmuch as the lower leaves admit within them the upper.
1199. The corolla is homologous with the whole mass of the petiolated or ramular leaves. Thus their arrangement, form, and number taken together are not worth more than the characters of the corolla, nor are they worth less, because they are relations of deeper organs.
1200. The corolla stands also in a whorl, because it is the totality of leaves.
1201. The laws of the leaf-formation are also the laws of the corolla-formation. The corolla will therefore represent at one time a greater, at another a less, ramified leaf-system.
1202. The corolla is the last verticil in the series of leaf-whorls; for it represents the last leaf-form, and must fade, because the tissues have completely separated from each other, namely, the tracheæ as stamina, from the cells that constitute corolla leaflets or petals. No part can carry on life by or for itself.
1203. The parts of the corolla range in an alternating manner with those of the calyx, because they are the next supra-consecutive bud.
1204. In accordance with the three stages of the leaf-formation the corolla is also resolvable into three forms. The scale-or root-leaf returns in the several squamiform micropetals of what have been called the Apetalous plants; it corresponds to the involucrum—squamoid corolla.The spathe-or stalk-leaf appears in the tubular-shaped or Monopetalous corolla. It is a leaf-bud, which has only ruptured at the apex, like most calyces, unto which it corresponds—spathoid corolla. Lastly, in the polypetalous corolla the reticular or petiolated leaf appears upon its highest stage—reticular or phylloid corolla. The rank of the leaves consequently determines also that of corollæ.
1205. Although we regard the corolla as a whorl of leaves, namely, as several leaf-buds approximated, a yet clearer insight into its numbers and positional relations is attained, by viewing it only as the lobes of a single leaf.
1206. If we regard the petals of a polypetalous corolla in the import or light ofpinnate leaflets, the legitimate regularity of their numerical relations, and the so-called irregularity of their arrangement is easily explained. The papilionaceous corollæ have been manifestly constructed according to the plan of the pinnate leaf; the vexillum or vane corresponds to the odd leaflet, the alæ or wings to the two anterior, the carina or keel to the two posterior pinnate leaflets; and hence their consecutive ratio of decrease in respect to size.
1207. All irregular corollæ admit of being referred to the papilionaceous form. One petal is always found, which separates from the others, is either larger or smaller, or entirely ablated, and consequently corresponds to the odd pinnate leaflet or vane.
1208. The irregular monopetalous or tubular corollæ admit also of being referred to the papilionaceous form. They need only be regarded as a confluence of petals. The labiate corollæ are one of the same character; but, on the contrary, the lower lip is trifid, the upper, and thus the keel, bifid. Here the papilionaceous corolla stands, properly speaking, reversed.
NUMERICAL LAW.
1209. The number of petals in the corolla ranges parallel with the mode of development of the pinnate leaves.But at first the odd terminal leaf necessarily originates, because a leaf must have several pairs of ribs, before it splits in a ptiloidal or pinnate manner. The primary number of petals is therefore one. This number is found in those plants called apetalous, where the small lateral petals are abortive, and frequently the terminal petal itself, as in the catkin, where only the calyx has been left remaining.
1210. The normal ratio, in which the numbers of the petals progress, is the odd or uneven. For a leaf is to be regarded as a single fascicle of fibres with cellular substance. This packet of fibres grows straight out. It is solicited by the light to give off bundles of fibres; there is thus no existing cause, why it should only give off such upon one, and not upon the other, side of the bundle. At the first division therefore it must be anoddleaflet, which is the principal bundle of fibres, while twoevenpinnate leaflets take their origin upon its sides.
1211. The second number of petals is thereforethree; for this is the first number in which a pinnate leaf can appear. This number is much more frequently met with than the former, because all division of a terminal bud necessarily strives after the representation of the whorl. Under this head come most Monocotyledons, as grasses, rushes, lilies.
1212. Of the three petals of a corolla all three are not of equal import, two only are alike as being lateral pinnate leaflets; the third, however, is present as the odd or uneven leaflet.
1213. Upon this inequality of import depends the irregularity of many ternary corollæ, e. g. of the Orchideæ, Apiaceæ, and even many Irides and lilies.
1214. If the trinity or ternary division depend upon the pinnated leaf, so must also the next number depend thereupon.
1215. The third prevalent number in the vegetable world is the quinary. The quinary division originates, when to the two pinnate leaflets two others are superadded. The pentapetalous corolla is also anoddpinnate leaf in a whorl-shaped position with four pinnate leaflets.
1216. The pentapetalous is naturally higher in rank than the tripetalous, and this than the monopetalous, corolla.
1217. In the former four petals are of equal rank, but the fifth or odd petal differs from them. This difference is shown in its position, size, form, design, and colouring. The odd leaf is usually larger, of a rounded form, having more ribs and other spots or markings.
1218. It appears as if, with this second liberation of fibrous fascicles from the main bundle, the differentialization were closed. For most corollæ are only quinarily divided, or admit at least of being referred back to that number.
1219. It is readily comprehended why there are only three breaks present in the number of petals, that these are denoted by one, three, and five, and that they rarely ascend to seven, nine, and so on. For the posterior pinnate leaflets are wont also to abort or be arrested in the leaves.
1220. There can be no plant withoriginallytwo corolla-lobes or petals; for the fibrous bundle does not thus divide itself; one main fasciculus is always left. The cause why the principal bundle does not divide into two equal fasciculi resides in the very nature or essence of the stalk. The idea of the stalk operates throughout the whole plant. The odd or uneven leaflet is only the last expansion of the stalk. The even leaflets are its branches.
1221. For the same reason there can be nooriginallyquaternary corolla.
1222. There can be none that is originally sexanary.
1223. But an originally septenary corolla is conceivable, if forsooth the energy of light is still in a condition to separate two bundles of fibres. How rarely this occurs is well known, and thus it still continues doubtful whether this form is not to be explained by an arrest of development.
1224. Nature can produce no originally octo-, deka-, or dodeka-petalous, &c. corolla.
1225. Corollæ with originally nine, eleven, and more numbers are not impossible. The last seem only to exist.
1226. All corollas having even numbered petals, originate through arrest of the odd leaflet.
1227. The number two originates most usually and in the simplest manner from the arrest of the number three. If it originates from the quinary quantity, two pinnate leaflets are then coarrested.