Gemmule

“ Darwin's keen analogy of the fertilization of plants by pollen renders development from without conceivable, but as there are no insects to convey gemmules to their destination, each kind of gemmule would have to be exceedingly numerous and easily attracted from amongst an inconceivable number of other gemmules. ”

“ The vast majority of the gemmules, or those which fail to be thus developed, go to constitute the stirp of the new organism when this has been formed by the development of the comparatively few successful gemmules. ”

“ In order that each living creature may be thus furnished, the number of such gemmules in each must be inconceivably great. Mr. Darwin says: [219] "In a highly organized and complex animal, the gemmules thrown off from each different cell or unit throughout the body must be inconceivably numerous and minute. Each unit of each part, as it changes during development—and we [210] know that some insects undergo at least twenty metamorphoses—must throw off its gemmules. ”

“ They inherit, as it were, the advantages of position, which contributed to the survival of the parent, as one of the selected fittest. The gemmules which sink are doubtless rolled short distances along the bottom, while those which float have the opportunity of widely distributing the species with the risk of being washed out to sea. But even these floating gemmules are exposed to far less dangers than the delicate free-swimming larvae, for their soft parts are protected from shocks by a thick coat armed with amphidiscs. ”

“ Their development is supposed to depend on their union with other partially developed cells or gemmules which precede them in the regular course of growth. Why I use the term union, will be seen when we discuss the direct action of pollen on the tissues of the mother-plant. Gemmules are supposed to be thrown off by every cell or unit, not only during the adult state, but during all the stages of development. Lastly, I assume that the gemmules in their dormant state have a mutual affinity for each other, leading to their aggregation either into buds or into the sexual elements. ”

“ The principle of the independent formation of each part, in so far as its development depends on the union of the proper gemmules with certain nascent cells, together with the superabundance of the gemmules derived from both parents and self-multiplied, throws light on a widely different group of facts, which on any ordinary view of development appears very strange. ”

“ All organic beings, moreover, include many dormant gemmules derived from their grandparents and more remote progenitors, but not from all their progenitors. These almost infinitely numerous and minute gemmules must be included in each bud, ovule, spermatozoon, and pollen grain." We have seen also that in certain cases a similar multitude of gemmules must be included also in every considerable part of the whole body of each organism, but where are we to stop? ”

“ But in the cases of complete and final abortion the gemmules themselves no doubt have perished; nor is this in any way improbable, for, though a vast number of active and long-dormant gemmules are diffused and nourished in each living creature, yet there must be some limit to their number; and it appears natural that gemmules derived from an enfeebled and useless rudiment would be more liable to perish than those derived from other parts which are still in full functional activity. ”

“ There is another point on which it is useless to speculate, namely, whether all gemmules are free and separate, or whether some are from the first united into small aggregates. A feather, for instance, is a complex structure, and, as each separate part is liable to inherited variations, I conclude that each feather certainly generates a large number of gemmules ”

“ For how can gemmules attach themselves to others to which they do not normally or generally succeed? Scarcely less difficult to understand is the process of the stomach-carrying-off mode of metamorphosis before spoken of as existing in the Echinoderms. ”

“ The existence of free gemmules is a gratuitous assumption, yet can hardly be considered as very improbable, seeing that cells have the power of multiplication through the self-division of their contents. Gemmules differ from true ovules or buds inasmuch as they are supposed to be capable of multiplication in their undeveloped state. ”

“ Many of the species, however, are as big as small trees, and all colours are represented, from brightest tints of green to vivid crimson, that in an instant pales to lavender, quivers to gold, or slips into molten ruby or sapphire as the angle of view alters. ”

“ The seed of a Rose doth obtain the virtue and nature of a Rose, yet for all that it is not a Rose, but when being put into the earth, it doth sprout, then at the last it produceth a Rose. By the same reason, there are certain celestial virtues and actions in being, which being sown into Gemms, which were called of the ancient Magicians, Peantides and Gamahii (otherwise gemmæ huyæ) from whence they have afterwards sprung up, no otherwise than seed, which doth fall from the Tree, and doth regerminate. ”

“ As an anther producing a single grain of pollen is not inconsistent with our notions of structure, so neither is an anther consisting of a single grain of pollen.
Will any one show me an instance of a proved gemma taking upon itself the form of one of these anthers? Will any show an instance of a sac containing fluid matter capable of growth after dehiscence. The real gemmæ of the Hepaticæ puts the question of gemmæ out of doubt. Is there any plant existing with two sorts of gemmæ, so differently constituted? Many phænogams have gemma in addition to sexes, so have Hepaticæ. ”

“ From that day I became a hunter of orchids and a haunter of far-away forests and lonely marshlands and unvisited hill-tops and mountain-sides. Wherever the lovely hid-folk dwell, there go I. They are strange flowers, these orchids. When first they were made out of sunshine, mist, and dew, every color was granted them save one. They may wear snow-white, rose-red, pearl and gold, green and white, purple and gold, ivory and rose, yellow, gold and brown, every shade of crimson and pink. ”

“ By way of the lower heaven of bedstraw blooms the eye rises easily to the forest of jewel-weeds. These at least are rightly, if unconsciously, named. It is not only the bloom but the whole weed that is a jewel when the morning sun is low and the reflected light slides level into the forest among purple stems that shoal into transparent green as they slender toward the leaves. These, too, seem transluscent and glow, and then some sprite seems to have suddenly turned on the jewels. ”

“ An excursion into the literature of gems would reveal that there is much to be discovered about them other than the cold facts of gemology, techniques of gem cutting, and tales of gem lore. When all the information about an individual species is assembled, it provides a sketch of a fascinating gemstone personality. Whole books have been written about diamond—books filled with essays on its mining history, natural occurrences, scientific significance, and best known cut stones. ”

“ Meanwhile there rose up here and there more of such water-spirits, like diving birds, all looking upon me and bringing up again the stones I had cast in, which amazed me much. And the first and chiefest among them, whose raiment shone like pure gold and silver, cast to me a shining stone of the bigness of a pigeon's egg and green and transparent as an emerald, with these words: "Take thou this trinket, that thou mayst have somewhat to report of us and of our lake." ”

“ Upon the banks hart's-tongue was coming up fresh and green, and the early orchis was in flower. Fern and flower and fledglings had come again as they have come every year since the oldest of these ancient shafts was erected, for life is older, life is greyer, than the weather-beaten mouldings. But life, too, is fresh and young; the stern thought in the stone becomes more cold and grim as the centuries pass away. In the crevices at the foot of another cross wallflowers blossomed, and plants of evening primrose, not yet in flower, were growing. ”

“ In many forms of flowers—foxglove, aloe, hemlock, or blossom of maize—the structure of the flowering part so far assimilates itself to that of a tree, that we not unnaturally think of a tree only as a large flower, or large remnant of flower, run to seed. And we suppose the time and place of its branching to be just as organically determined as the height of the stalk of straw, or hemlock pipe, and the fashion of its branching just as fixed as the shape of petals in a pansy or cowslip. ”

“ II High at the garden’s centre, nailed to a massive tree of wood, stood out the Sacrifice. From behind, fir and pine thrust their long green boughs, as if eager to screen that torn and unclad shape. From below, jasmine and geranium, carnation and rose, sent upward an unfailing incense. ”

“ The slender chestnuts, maples, elms, and white ash trees, which last are uncommonly numerous here, are now all bare of leaves, and a few small hemlocks, with their now thin but unmixed and fresh green foliage, stand over and cheer the stream, and remind me of winter, the snows which are to come and drape them and contrast with their green, and the chickadees that are to flit and lisp amid them. Ah, the beautiful tree, the hemlock, with its green canopy, under which little grows, not exciting the cupidity of the carpenter, whose use most men have not discovered. ”

“ FASHIONING OF GEM-STONES ALTHOUGH many of the gem-stones have been endowed by nature with brilliant lustrous faces and display scintillating reflections from their surfaces, yet their form is never such as to reveal to full perfection the optical qualities upon which their charm depends. ”

“ The top of her head is gold, the rest of her body greyish white, her beak pale pink, her tail of green and gold, intermingled with touches of greyish-white and red. She feeds on the blossoms of a flower growing amongst a peculiar grass, and on all kinds of fruit. ”

“ So thick was the overhanging foliage, that it not only shut out the sunshine, but almost the daylight; and we travelled on through a perpetual gloom of vaulted boughs and intermingled shade. There were no flowers here—no herbage. The earth beneath us was a black, rich vegetable mould, into which the cart-wheels sank a foot deep; a rank, reedy grass grew round the roots of the trees, and sheltered rattlesnakes and reptiles. The timber was all hard timber, walnut, beech, and bass-wood, and oak and maple of most luxuriant growth ”

“ There are many flowers in the forest; marigolds, a white jonquil-looking flower without smell, many orchids, white, yellow, and pink asclepias, with bunches of French-white flowers, clematis--_Methonica gloriosa_, gladiolus, and blue and deep purple polygalas, grasses with white starry seed-vessels, and spikelets of brownish red and yellow. Besides these, there are beautiful blue flowering bulbs, and new flowers of pretty, delicate form and but little scent. To this list may be added balsams, composite of blood-red color and of purple ”

“ The rare plants peculiar to their rugged heights are mostly in bloom, and the wild thyme and the heather spread over waste and moorland their treasures of purple and crimson flowers,—making glad many a solitary place, and cheering the wanderer as he climbs crag above crag, till, from the crest of some mighty rock, he gains a scene of glory that were reward sufficient for thrice the labour he has spent. ”

“ Strong-ribbed and sharp-toothed, and wavy on the midrib, dark, polished, like leather, these units form a wonderful dome, lightened in midsummer by the pencil-like plumes of the staminate flowers, with the fertile ones at their bases. As autumn comes on the leaf crown turns to gold, and the mature fruits are still green spiny balls. The first frost and the time to drop the nuts are dates that every schoolboy knows come close together. ”

“ There are the flowers of simple loves, the flowers of the young wife who will dry the blue lavender to scent her coarse sheets. And in this garden grows also the flower of the rondel—the humble gilliflower with its simple perfume. There is also the faithful box, each leaf of which is a small mirror of azure, and the hollyhock in which the sweet and pure flame of melancholy corollas burns; they are the flowers of religion vowed to silence and austerity.
And I love also the flora of the meadows: the meadow-sweet swayed by the breezes, rocked by the murmur of the brook. ”

“ You all know, surely, the Hemlock spruce of America; which, while growing by itself in open ground, is the most wilful and fantastic, as well as the most graceful, of all the firs; imitating the shape, not of its kindred, but of an enormous tuft of fern. ”

“ All around me is the mellow grace of sunshine, roses, lilies, heliotropes, carnations, marigolds, nasturtiums, marguerites, and geraniums are a-bloom; and as far as the eye can reach, the green velvet of billowing acres is blended with the passion of wild poppies ”

“ At sunset it is bathed in purple light, its trees grow darker, its hills more shadowy, its hollows deeper and more mysterious. Then, lifted above the dark masses of the trees, one may see marble shafts and domes turn to liquid gold. ”

“ On one side rise gray rocks, cold and dead, save for the little happy life that, springing up above, flows over them, leaping, laughing from crag to crag, bedewing leaf and blossom, and dashing its gem-like spray over all the lichens and velvet mosses and feathery ferns that grow luxuriantly to hide the rugged jags of stone. ”

“ Now the fruits of these trees were all precious stones, each tree bearing fruit of one colour and kind of jewel, and these fruits were of all colours, green and white and yellow and red and what not else of colours. Their glitterance outshone the rays of the sun in its forenoon splendour and the bigness of each jewel overpassed description; suffice it that not one of them might be found with the greatest of the kings of the world, [96] no, nor a gem half the bigness of the smallest that was there. ”