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Table of Contents

CHAPTER XVII ON THE THEORY OF TRANSFORMATIONS, OR THE COMPARISON OF RELATED FORMS

by somewhat more complex, co-ordinate networks.

Three grid-based diagrams illustrating the transformation of a biological form, likely a plant or cell, as it scales.

For instance, the varying shapes of the simple wineglass-shaped cups of the Campanularidae are at once sufficiently represented and compared by means of simple Cartesian co-ordinates (Fig. 371). In the two allied families of Plumulariidae and Aglaopheniidae the calycles are set unilaterally upon a jointed stem, and small cup-like structures (holding rudimentary polypes) are associated with the large calycles in definite number and position. These small calyculi are variable in number, but in the great majority of cases they accompany the large calycle in groups of three〔two standing by its upper border, and one, which is especially variable in form and magnitude, lying at its base. The stem is liable to flexure and, in a high degree, to extension or compression; and these variations extend, often on an exaggerated scale, to the related calycles. As a result we find that we can draw various systems of curved or sinuous co-ordinates, which express, all but completely, the configuration

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