On the morphology of the reproductive system of the Sertularian zoophyte, and its analogy with the reproductive system of the flowering plant / By Edward Forbes.

  • Edward Forbes
Date:
1844
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the morphology of the reproductive system of the Sertularian zoophyte, and its analogy with the reproductive system of the flowering plant / By Edward Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    On the Morphology of the Reproductive System of the Sertularian Zoophyte, and its analogy with the Reproductive System of the Flowering Plant. By Prof. E. Forbes of King’s College, London*. [With a Plate.] The celebrated Grew, in his ‘ Idea of a Phytological History pro¬ pounded/ among other recommendations of the study of vege¬ table anatomy, urges that “ it may frequently conduct our minds to the consideration of the state of animals, as whether there are not divers material agreements betwixt them and plants, and what they are.” The present communication has sprung out of such an application of phytological science. The doctrine of the ideal metamorphosis of the leaf or vegeta¬ ble individual in order to play a part in the reproduction of the species is now no longer a qucestio vexata, but an article of faith with the philosophical botanist. The mind of Linnseus discovered it, the spirit of Goethe divined it, and now that naturalists have been taught to trust in it by the experience of continued research, none but a botanical sceptic will venture to dispute it. The doctrine of the vegetable individual is presented in its most precise form in the recent essays of Gaudichaud. His type or phyton, of an assemblage of which types the plant is composed, consists in itself of a limb or lamina, an ascending axis and a de¬ scending axis. Such a type is essentially respiratory and nutri¬ tive, and devoted to the life of the individual or congeries of in¬ dividuals, and must be modified by a metamorphosis, usually re¬ trograde, always ideal, ere it becomes a reproductive organ, and is devoted to the service and perpetuation of the species. The plant, such as it presents itself usually to our view, is a composite being, made up of many such individuals, some serving to the nourishment of the composite individual or entirety, some metamorphosed either singly or in numbers, so as to assist in the propagation of the species of which that composite being is a member. That composite being is a commonwealth, all the members of which are fixed, though serving different purposes in the state. It is as truly a commonwealth as is the assemblage of bees in their hive or of termites in their hill. In such common¬ wealths we also see a division of physiological offices. Such com¬ monwealths are to be found for the most part among beings in¬ cluded in the articulate sphere of the animal kingdom; that sphere which is itself representative of the vegetable kingdom, and obe¬ dient to the same great general laws. Now as there are composite animals as well as plants, it be¬ comes a curious and important inquiry to investigate the analo¬ gies of their parts and functions, and to see how far our certain * Read at the Meeting of the British Association at York in Sept. 1844.