PRIMITIVE METHODS OF REPRODUCTION
Asexual Reproduction. The most primitive forms of cell life have a very simple method of reproduction. They are the product of fission or division. The cell grows until it reaches a certain stage, then divides, forming two cells, which are as complete as the mother cell was. These daughter cells follow the same course, a constant and continuous process of dividing, every cell (unless destroyed in the contacts with its environment) becoming a parent cell and reproducing two like itself by division.
Inevitably, in the course of these primitive forms of life, the cells are exposed to numerous hazards and a very large proportion are destroyed, which is fortunate, otherwise the earth would soon become over-run by the rapid reproduction of any one of many of the simple forms of life.
Even in certain fairly high types of plant life, this principle may be seen. In the yeast plant, for instance, a cell of the body of the plant at maturity simply becomes two cells, by division, or pushing out a bud. Each of these two cells then becomes a new individual plant.
Some of the mosses, too, reproduce by the process of division and separation. The different parts separate from one another, then each part develops the missing members and becomes a new plant.
Following this course, any part of a moss that is separated from the parent moss may become a new and complete organism. By this method of division, the moss spreads to such places as it finds food.
With the exception of reproduction by cell division, however, the universal tendency of nature in the lower orders is to effect reproduction in the vegetable kingdom by means
