takes place after the organism has reached its highest degree of
physical perfection. When we now read these facts in the light of the
knowledge that they are deeds of the activity of the type, we may
describe them as follows:

Stage by stage the type expends itself in ever more elaborate forms of
appearance, until in the blossom a triumph of form over matter is
reached. A mere continuation of this path could lead to nothing but a
loss of all connexion between the plant's superphysical and physical
component parts. Thus, to guarantee for the species its continuation in
a new generation, the formative power of the type must find a way of
linking itself anew to some part of the plant's materiality. This is
achieved by the plant's abandoning the union between its two polar
growth-principles and re-establishing it again, which in the majority
of cases takes place even in such a way that the bearers of the two
principles originate from two different organisms.

By picturing the process in this way we are brought face to face with a
rule of nature which, once we have recognized it, proves to hold sway
at all levels of organic nature. In general terms it may be expressed
as follows:

In order that spiritual continuity may be maintained within the coming
and going multitude of nature's creations, the physical stream must
suffer discontinuity at certain intervals.

In the case of the plant this discontinuity is achieved by the breaking
asunder of the male and female growth-principles. When they have
reunited, the type begins to abandon either the entire old plant or at
least part of it, according to whether the species is an annual or a