CHAPTER 10

Biology 1 – Plants

The great Scottish naturalist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson has shown that there is a real

geometrical and proportional conformation, related to the Golden Ratio, in all living

organisms, plants and animals. He spent a lifetime analysing botanical and zoological

specimens, taking careful measurements of the dynamics of movement and the spiral

organisation of plant-growth, the development of sea-shells in many different spirals. He

revealed the order and proportions of many species of living creatures. His detailed

mathematical calculations, relating proportions to performance and purpose, are published in

a large work entitled “Growth and Form”.

He studied single-celled water-creatures which can be classified, either as plants or animals

by intent; the mechanisms and hydraulics of what makes a horse able to run and jump over

obstacles, a lion to spring on its prey and the oddest-shaped fishes to swim. He made

diagrams of the clearly-defined geometry of leaves, of various shapes, and of the Fibonacci

sets of numbers that govern the spiral arrangement of these leaves on stalks and stems of

many plants; the main and minor branches springing from the trunks of trees; the points at

which they burst out from the trunk and the way in which, on plant stems, the lesser stems

appear spirally from the bottom to the top. The pentagonal, hexagonal and larger numbers

found in the grouping of petals on flower-heads and the yellow centres of all the compositae

family – including the sunflower where, on account of its size, every seed-case can be

counted and plotted exactly. Here, the generated harmonics of Phi can be envisaged, the ratio

of 8:5 producing the spiral curves in both directions.

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“Growth and Form” is a massive work, filled with philosophical interpretations of the

calculated findings of growth organisation that appears to be completely in line with

Pythagorean mathematics. Although D’Arcy Thompson does not speak of harmonics, all the

geometric ratios and Pi and Phi are present as basic proportions.

D'Arcy Thompson is acutely aware of "forces" which must control and modify organic

development and is quite sure that this must come from behind or within, as an organising

principle. He realised that, without such a principle, there could be no ordered, formal

projection for inner forces to control and limit growth – as do outer ones, which also play a

large part in stabilising forms "in the world".

D’Arcy Thompson admits he does not know how to define such forces. But their influence is

implicit, to him, in the order of projection. He sees these forces as originating in two ways:

(a) from a line, as when a cutting or segment of stalk or leaf is used to "strike" a new plant,

thus rooting it from its parent; and (b) from a centre, which is the growing plant bursting forth

from the seed. He borrows Goethe's name, Morphology, to describe this study. Such

experimentation, mathematically, could lead on to new forms – such as are, so far, only

imaginary. But, whether such mathematical forms could function, no-one could foretell.

He says: "The study of forms may be descriptive, merely, or it can become analytical. We

begin by describing the shape of an object in the simple terms of common speech; we end by

defining it in the precise language of mathematics; and the one method tends to follow the

other in strict scientific order or historical continuity ... The mathematical definition of a

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"form" has a quality of precision which is quite lacking in earlier...descriptions; it is expressed

in few words and briefer symbols ... (which) are so poignant with meaning that thought itself

is economised. We are brought, by means of it, in touch with Galileo's aphorisms (as old as

Plato, as old as Pythagoras, as old, perhaps, as the wisdom of the Egyptians) that "the Book of

Nature is written in characters of geometry". (See p.269 and footnote 2, “Growth and

Form”.)

D'Arcy Thompson sees mathematics as the means of discovering the under-structure of all

manifestation and quotes innumerable accepted authorities of all ages as saying the same.

"The precise definition of an ellipse introduces us to all ellipses in the world; that of a conic

section enlarges our concepts, and a "curve of higher order" all the more "extends our range

of freedoms." We find them all built in the order of Nature. But this freedom is controlled

and regulated and we "reach through mathematical analysis to mathematical synthesis" (of

forms).

Whatever we do in this world, design is always the same for the purpose to be achieved,

whether in something made by man (if it is to work effectively) or found in Nature in the

parabola of a water jet or the flight of an arrow; the spirality of developing forms are always

the same; that is, they behave in the same way. And this was confirmed by J C Bose in his

greatest work on the electrical response in “The Living and Non-Living”, to paraphrase the

title of his thesis on that subject.

However, man-made artefacts are frequently subject to the idiosyncrasies of their inventors

3
and their genius or the lack of it; and where there is such a lack, then the inventions will be

out of harmony with the natural rhythms of the environment and will function less effectively.

But Nature can only produce what will perform harmoniously as all forces are under the law –

though they can, if carefully handled, be manipulated in certain ways and up to a critical

degree. If discordantly used, the end-result will be adverse, inevitably. Nature will be

disturbed, more or less, and will suffer for it in appropriate degree.

It could, perhaps, and may become in the future, as we research into new areas, proportion,

Nature and artefacts we shall find that an effective machine will look pleasing to the eye, as

well as being efficient. Doczi, in his researches has shown the geometry that underlies the

structure of the modern aeroplane. This, in practice will, in time, have to be employed in far

greater depth than as yet.

In Nature, all organisms are elegantly structured to perform, with maximum efficiency, in the

role allocated to them. One needs only to glimpse the spiralling tracks of fleeting particles in

a bubble chamber to envisage the pre-physical principles at work that later manifest as a

physical counterpart or copy or end-result. (Fig: 19b.) D'Arcy Thompson lived too early for

Kayser's work to have reached him.

It might have supplied essential explanations for his profound insights but, at his stage, he

could only describe things from the outside while acknowledging the inner dynamics –

though still unable to define them. However, D’Arcy Thompson taught people to look at

things as organised entities – and organisation implied purpose – rather than to dismiss them

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as accidental "casual accretions" and, thus, to realise that they could not be the result of

chance.

Each form is exactly and carefully structured for the task in life it has to perform. There is no

species in the world, however lowly or miniscule, that does not play a part in the maintenance

of the biosphere – and which part, if it were not there, would not be performed. This is why

the destruction by Man of whole ecosystems, entire species of plant or animal, throughout the

world, only increases the destruction and reduction of the environment and inhibits its

capacity to function. There is nothing designed by Nature that is not a part of a grand design,

and she cannot do without any species.

Goethe, of course, tried to correlate form with function, calling it Morphology. Both were

aware of inner dynamics – energy driving outwards into forms. Goethe, the mystic, was not

enamoured of mathematics. D’Arcy Thompson, the rationalist and scientist, believed in a

logical under-structure and that mathematics would bring it to light. Kayser's "value forms"

seek to fuse the two points of view. The one fulfils the other, as harmonics show.

The whole (value) is greater than the sum of its parts (number) and through the principle of

resonance, correspondence and proportion, value is enhanced. This is where fragmentation,

as analysis of smaller and smaller portions, alone can never produce a complete explanation

or working model of a whole organism. Something (value) is always left out of the equation.

Bose saw the need to think holistically – although it was Jan Christian Smuts, first President

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of South Africa, who coined the word “holism”. He named his book “Holism and

Evolution”.

What is required today is, in essence, a return to the view of the wholeness of things – in

themselves, in relation to each other and to the universality of existence. It will perhaps only

be when we can demonstrate the unifying, universal principle that runs through the whole,

that is common to all departments and can be identified in all phenomena, that we shall

comprehend the full meaning of holism.

What the well-known Swiss psychologist Paul Tournier used as the title of one of his many

books – “The Whole Person in a Broken World” – goes for that world too. Ours a

fragmented world. It will remain so until it can be reintegrated under a common principle and

all its parts placed in proper relationships – like a well-composed symphony being performed

by a top-class orchestra, giving an X-plus performance that is long-remembered by the

audience and evoking that intensity of experience that is the "value" of excellence.

In our search for synthesis, we must follow our quest for harmonic and geometric order,

wherever it leads. It exists in both plants and animals, though it is easier to see in the former.

In his chapter on Phyllotaxis, D'Arcy Thompson writes about it at considerable length and it

is by no means simple. Phyllotaxis, as a word, denotes the study of the order in growth of

leaves on stalks, from stems and branches, in plants and trees.

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There are definite proportions in the way they are arranged and the distance, as intervals, at

which they are placed around the stem. They have been studied for centuries, not least by

Leonardo da Vinci. D’Arcy Thompson feels, too, that the old Greek and Egyptian geometers

are unlikely to have overlooked this beautiful study and the spiral arrangement of leaves on a

palm stem or the petals on a lotus, or the florets (seed-pods) on the face of the sunflower.

Keith Critchlow also wrote: "The harmonic relations resulting in geometric progressions can

be described as space/time graphs like phyllotaxis in the unfolding of leaves on a plant; that,

in time-progressions of space, (they) are a dynamic expression of biological energy." He

adds: "There is no reason to suppose that the Ancients ... were "blind" to the face of a flower

or to the leaves on a twig which so beautifully set out the mathematical principles which

govern growth and form in the vegetable world." John Michell has also expressed such a

view.

Quoting Nehemiah Grew (“The Anatomy of Plants”, 1687), D’Arcy Thompson says: "From

contemplating plants, one might first be invited to mathematical enquiry – “Botanists have

speculated that this spiral growth must involve some fundamental law but never seemed able

to visualise what that law might be. It is the harmonical law of vibrations and waves,

including all the roots, the overtone series, the octave intervals, the Fibonacci series, Pi and

Phi etc.

The ratio 3:2 is the angle at which a major branch will usually leave the trunk of a large tree,

and, as the tree grows, the other angles and intervals accrue. Harmonics and tone proliferate

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into small branches, twigs and leaves. "Three", the third stage (manifestation of the aeons),

"gives birth to all the numbers" on the physical plane. They are Ouspensky's "inner octaves"

and Kayser's harmonics. Kayser has made very precise diagrams of leaves and stalks and

shown the ratios. (Figs: 38 and 39.)

One of D’Arcy Thompson's opponents tried to say that the whole doctrine of Phyllotaxis was

just "a sort of geometrical or arithmetical playing-about with "ideas" or "a mode of view",

gratuitously projected onto the plant. He even declared that this theory was in complete and

direct opposition to scientific investigation and based upon "the idealism of the nature-

philosophie of Oken and his school". In view of what modern physics can now show us about

pre-physical activity, this man today would not have a leg to stand on! And it is the harmonic

under-structure of energy activity that makes it plain. Fibonacci is displayed in both stalks

and flower-heads.

D’Arcy Thompson sees the head as a sort of flattened stalk. But I see it as a next step in

progress, into a higher octave, followed by the fruit and then the seed. They are all controlled

by the inner harmonics, so no plant can grow beyond its own optimum size. It has to be

contained within its own dynamic and particular ratios.

On Phyllotaxis, I can only quote a few essentials, though D’Arcy Thompson discusses it at

length. He writes: "Phyllotaxis and spiral arrangements in flower-heads produce series,

stopping at different numbers, according to the size of the head. They are all Fibonacci

numbers. Sunflowers vary in series from 21 seeds in a spiral row to as many as 89 or even

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144 (both Fibonacci). These lie in Phi ratios of 1.618, or 8:5 in the octave, and they seldom

vary. He notes that 3:2 appears in many shells and hard casings and, in static forms, as

crystals. 8:5 appears in biological, botanical growth and the principle of the number 5 is

universal in the development of biological, organic organisms (plants and animals). Many

plants display the number 5 in their flower-head, (number of petals) while a few display four-

ness, such as some of the well-known, old-fashioned shrub-roses, and Bourbons – Rosa

Gallica, Belle de Crecy or Queen of Denmark. These are obvious but there are many other

sets of petal numbers whose inner principle we do not yet interpret.

The pine-cone has a close packed assemblage of woody scales, so tightly arranged that each is

rhomboidal and quadrangular in shape. Each scale intersects two lines criss-crossing each

other in a spiral curve whose intricacy of design commands respect. They run from the

bottom to the top – some are hexagonal while some are in series of 13. There are many such

cones, all differing slightly. But Fibonacci is never far away and they are all logarithmic in

degree.

One reason we know of for the spacing of leaves so carefully is the necessity of

photosynthesis – by which means the energy of sunlight (the photon) is trapped by the leaves

and processed into chlorophyll – and how much sunlight the leaves can attract limits the

amount of work the plant can do in processing sugars and starches. So, they must be carefully

spaced so that each leaf can get as much sunlight as possible. And, without photosynthesis,

the plant cannot live.

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The number 144 is very prominent in this context, as it is in Gematria and in music. D’Arcy

Thompson calculated thus: "Starting from a green leaf and proceeding upwards ... (round the

stalk) upon the cylindrical stem, another, younger leaf will be found standing at a certain

distance round the stem from the first one. The distance ... may be expressed as a fractional

"divergence", such as 2:5 of the circumference of the stem, as the botanists describe it, or by

the "angle of Azimuth" (such as 0 = 144) as the mathematicians would be more likely to

express it".

The angle 144o relates, approximately, to 2:5 of the circumference of 360 o . "Students," says

D’Arcy Thompson, "have not mostly been interested in the relation of one part to another nor

in overall organisation." For instance, it had not occurred to them that 144, being 2 parts of 5,

is 72 x 2, and 72 o is one part of a pentagon where each point is separated by 72 o from the

next. (Fig. 40.c.) The pentagon, thus, represents the number 5 in organic life and Kayser

substantiates this, as do all our currently quoted geometers. (72 x 5 = 360)

Anyone wanting to study phyllotaxis in depth must go to D’Arcy Thompson's original work.

But a warning is needed here. In the abridged version, published by Cambridge University

Press in 1969, the whole chapter on Phyllotaxis is omitted, as well as two other chapters

important for certain aspects of research. In his introduction to the book, T Bonner, who

edited and abridged it – and, in whom, one suspects a certain prejudice against D'Arcy

Thompson's classical stance – seems to find any mention of Platonists or Pythagoreanism

outdated and no longer of relevance. To geometers, it may be the most important. Although

the original work is large and long, any comprehensive study would be aborted if the abridged

10
version were used. Much that really matters has been left out!

With the 360o circle and musical-interval ratios, we can plot and number all the growth

patterns of any plant and find out its numerical blueprint. This is what Kayser has tried to do

in “Harmonia Plantarum” – alas, not translated into English. The logarithms of the string-

lengths enable us to define the growth of any plant in, say E major or G etc. By the number-

ratios of harmonic development of its species’ blueprint, the plant must grow into the shape

that it does, depending on the "scale" in which it has been "composed".

As in crystals, Glazewski describes the process, the molecules having limited freedoms of

vibration so that the shapes remain constant. He writes: "It is easy to see that any seed is not a

random accumulation of matters, but a well-organised one. Hence, only certain freedoms of

vibration are permissible ... " (or possible). This freedom, along any specific axis will depend

on the chemical combinations existing in the seed and their chemical bonds. The resultant

pattern of all these molecular vibrations, if amplified, will influence the growth of the plant.

"Let us suppose", he says, "for an instance, that, in a seed of a particular species, we find a

combination of three fundamental proportionalities or simple tones ... They may be, shall we

say, C - G, which form a major fifth or/and c - e, a major third and e - g, a minor one. These

tones will have different frequencies and different harmonics, according to their pitch. A

combination of these tones, thanks to their interference patterns, will produce a definite

schema, in three dimensions. It would be enough to amplify these mechanical vibrations

which lie hidden in the seed – where their vibrations are extremely minute and faint – in order

11
to produce an outburst in the seed".

The cause of their amplification of course is Light – just as, in photosynthesis, heat and water

also play a part. And all these elements must be in harmonical accord with each other, if they

are to interact together according to law, so that the plant can grow. Thus, it must be assumed

that all the natural forces do dance together to the same rhythms. On the chemistry of growth,

Glazewski refers again to Light as the main activating factor. He says: "To its different

wavelengths each molecule will react differently. We know that the infrared band of the light

spectrum increases the momentum of molecules by thermal agitation (temperature) and so we

see why heat is indispensable for growth ..."

Other factors will, of course, influence the process, such as climate, moisture, shelter and the

availability of suitable nutrients in the soil. Every country-person knows that vegetation

grows more lavishly in a wet season than in a dry one, while seeds germinate better and

earlier in a warm spring than in a cold one. It can, of course, be so wet that roots rot, or so

dry that plants shrivel and die. Each species requires its optimum right conditions in order to

thrive and they are all different in degree – which is why, over the Earth, some are found in

one terrain and some in another. Each needs the best site for its adaptability if it is to succeed

and to attain its greatest potential – i.e. to be the most perfect specimen of its kind.

It is an anomaly of the modern world that, in agriculture today, although we see this principle

in operation in the environment all around us, we utterly deny it on the farm and in our

gardening techniques. Nature never tries to make a plant grow in the wrong place. We are

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doing it all the time – and often in the wrong season as well. And then we wonder why our

crops do not thrive – and why, to mitigate our lack of success, we need to protect each one

from this or that predator with more-and-more chemical poisons which become more-and-

more wildly expensive and ineffective.

Nature simply avoids all long-term problems of pests and diseases by a right order maintained

among species but, if there are any cases of one or the other, it is always a matter of

individuals whose term of existence is probably about over anyway and are due for removal.

Pests arrive to devour them, as the first priority must be to keep the biosphere clean and tidy

and healthy. If they were left to rot, they would soon pollute the environment and choke it up

with dead matter which would lead to more disease and the eventual collapse of the system.

When Nature is left to herself, this does not happen. Pests appear and set about removing the

old and unfit in order to make way for new growth. The predators are Nature's garbage-men,

removing the potential rubbish and residues and, thereby, keeping the biosphere in good

working-order.

There is nothing Nature does without good purpose and her operations are all designed to

increase the efficiency and diversity and greater good of the greater whole. She is always

moving towards greater complexity and a richer creation.

It was from Kayser that Glazewski drew much of his material. “Harmonia Plantarum”

shows beautiful schematic diagrams of the harmonic development of leaves and flowers.

(Figs: 38 and 39.) Such calculations have been corroborated by Doczi in “The Power of

13
Limits” – though he does not mention Kayser.

He also shows the wave-patterns as harmonic proportions laid out to match the shapes of

leaves, animals or fishes etc. Doczi's work is wide-ranging and goes a long way beyond

botanical analysis of leaves and flower heads and to their spiral, harmonic and Fibonacci

organisation. (Fig: 41 a-c.) Both the Fibonacci and other spirals are quite varied and many

have a unique logarithmic development. D'Arcy Thompson indicates at least three main

spiral progressions, which he gives as follows: -

l) 1/2 1/3 2/5 3/8 5/15 8/21 13/34 etc.

2) 1/4 1/5 2/9 3/14 5/23 etc.

3) 1/4 2/7 3/11 5/18 8/29 etc.

The first is Fibonacci. Where the last two terms are added together, to produce the next one,

it is based on the l.6l8 logarith. In the second one, each fraction comes from adding the

numerator and the denominator of the previous fraction. In leaf arrangement, the most

frequent seems to be 1/2 (a pair) then 2/3 2/5 5/13 – such series are easiest seen in compressed

structures like cacti (with their spikes) and, in the compositae family, yellow centres. It exists

equally in leaves but is not so easily seen. (Fig: 42. b and c.)

Anthony Huxley, in “Plant and Planet”, suggests that "Nature is indeed a geometrician".

And H H Church in “Interpretation of the Phyllotaxis Phenomenon”, also apparently failed to

discover harmonics – although they were already being researched in Germany.

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Pursuing the Fibonacci fractions further, D’Arcy Thompson writes again: "... whenever any

system of spiral steps is present, certain others invariably accompany it and, of necessity ... in

any diagram representing our leaf arrangement ... we can draw one series as easily as another

...". The spruce-cone is said to have a phyllotaxis of 8/13; but there are even steeper scales up

to 13/21 ... and we may find the lower series of 5/8 or 3/5 or even 1/2 in different species.

(Fig: 42, b and c.)

The phenomenon has been pursued by Ardilan and Bakhtiar, two Persian (Iranian)

researchers; and the growth plan is identical. (Fig: 42.a.) (See also Said Hosein Nasr.) The

generating spiral in this figure, in each case, represents a divertance of 3/8 or 135 of azimuth.

(A third is accounted at 137.50776 o, c-e, or near it, by some calculations.) The points in this

drawing (Fig: 42a) succeed each other at the same distances, parallel to the axis. The eye

observes the varied rhythms of the many different sequences, but we can only note one or

two. There are many – again, the musical comparison can be extracted just as was done for

crystals and seeds.

Fibonacci numbers in flower-heads and the number of petals, are often 3 or 5. But we find 8-

ray florets in the dahlia, l3 in ragwort, 21 in ox-eye daisies and marigolds and, in the last two,

34 are produced in certain circumstances. In C, segum florets are said to be produced in a

bimordial curve of frequency with a high incidence of 13 and a low one of 21 ... they are all

Fibonacci numbers.

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Huntley, in “The Divine Proportion”, gives the following:

iris = 3

primrose = 5

ragwort = 13

daisy = 34

Michaelmas daisy = 55 and 89.

We also meet 8,7 and 16.

Fibonacci ratios are present in rainbows and the dispersion of water-droplets, out of which the

rainbow appears as they are reflected by the sun. The famous rabbit-breeding experiment is

well known; also the number of bees that have to be hatched in order to produce one drone-

bee. There are many books written on Fibonacci and it crops up repeatedly in biology. It

would be interesting to discover what would be the outcome of the application of Fibonacci

ratios to Mendel's experiments on peas. Perhaps it has already been calculated.

There is a great deal more about Phyllotaxis. But it is very technical and does not add to our

understanding, once we know of its presence. The sceptic will do well to note that, if we do

not always clearly see its exact proportions, it will be because of local relative factors such as

climate, location, proximity to other entities, nutritional conditions etc, which will all

influence actual growth performance. As in atoms, the Law of Relativity exerts itself in

living systems and, within limits only, they adapt to circumstances. However, an oak tree will

always be an oak tree, even if it is a sickly one, and each species will retain its own peculiar

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identity.

The blueprint of a species, its harmonic pattern, is constant. Kayser considered that

Morphology, the study of "psychic" conformation, has been completely ignored in favour of

Physiology. The latter is concerned much more with the human use to which plants can be

put. Even the laws of the chromosomes, the bearers of heredity, have been studied and bent

to the purely utilitarian. They are valued for crop production and highest yield and, for this

end, their chemistry has been studied.

One glimpse, however, into the natural green world will be enough to show us the tremendous

multiplicity of forms in the plant world and their purpose in Nature. This is different for each

one and was surely of more importance to the Creator than the question of their usefulness to

Man.

What are the forms of plants anyway and what accounts for their great variety? What are

their fundamental laws and how do they differ from, say, crystals, lower down the scale of

complexity and, on the higher side of the scale, the animals? "I have," Kayser says,

"investigated these problems over a long time ... and have succeeded in discovering some

parallels through harmonical analysis and concepts. While I did not solve (all) the riddles

they nevertheless (enabled) me to interpret some of them in human terms."

And he re-emphasises the ramifications of branch growth, "and the so-called dichotomy

operating from stems right out to their leaves." If one draws a graph of the string-lengths

17
used for the division of the monochord, one can transform these, as tones, into angles. For

example: 2:3 of the string length, with tone G, related to the full length of 1:1 and its tone C,

is 2:3 of the circumference of a circle or 240 o to the entire circle of 360 o. Thus, the tone g is

compounded into the angle 240 o. In this way, one immediately acquires a multitude of

morphological plant types, which differ from one another only in the arrangements which are

not at all arbitrary but subject to definite, lawful, harmonical principles of selection ... if one

projects all tones within the space of 1 octave (the same that Kepler applied in his

“Harmonice Mundi”) with their angles sketched in a particular way, one obtains the

prototype of a leaf form. This means that the framing interval of the octave, being very basic

to any music-making and to sensation, contains within it the form of a leaf.

The figure of 137 o of azimuth is quoted by D’Arcy Thompson as the 3:8 proportion. Robert
o
Dixon, writing in “New Scientist”, on “The Mathematical Daisy”, gave 137.50776 of a

circle as a main curve angle in his computed l.618 spiral. This is close enough to Kayser. We

can fill in all the other intervals according to their string-length. Approximately, we should

get: 0 = C; e – 137 o; g – 240 o and c – 360 o. We can fit the other notes in between these

angles.

Kayser notes the fact that, on occasion, two-number patterns will be displayed in the same

plant, especially in its petals. He cites the Passion Flower, with its 5-part petal-arrangement

and its 3-part pistil. "Just consider what it means that one blossom within a simple plant

exhibits an exact division into 3 and 5 (the major third). If one does not want to admit a

logically-reasoning intelligence, one must agree that, in the soul of plants, certain form-

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carrying prototypes – here, thirds and fifths – are at work which, as in music, shape the

blossom forms as intervals." From this, he suggests that the often-derided system of Linnaeus

acquires a "psychic" rehabilitation ... There is nothing artificial or abstract in the number of

stamens and pistils. But, here, the inmost "psychic form impulse comes into play, something

often described in creative divination by poets when speaking of the "marvellous music of the

blossoms".

An interesting insight into the octave structure of Creation, as already envisaged by Young

and Ouspensky, is developed further by Kayser. It concerns the male and female principles

and the major and minor scales. It differentiates quite sharply the divide between the higher

and lower stages of growth in life-forms. Plants are further evolved than crystals and this

advance is shown by the fact that they are the first living organisms to have obvious sexual

capacities.

"Nature", says Kayser, "created genus, sexuality, for the first time in or on the plant. And

there is, in harmonics, a very strange and informative interpretation of the problem of sex

which, at first, may seem abstract but which, if we know how to experience, how to "hear it",

a light will be thrown on the problem of sex and its first appearance in the plant kingdom. In

every chord, the third, the "third step" in the diatonic scale, which is the fifth ratio, (according

to vibration and string-length) is the "sex-tone", depending on whether it occurs as a major

third in a major chord, or a minor third in a minor one ... the major and minor scales rest upon

this difference. Thus, the third is realised through the fifth vibration or string-length of a

given unity.

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Thus five in the plant kingdom is not only significant because a great number of blossoms

show a five-leaf arrangement. It is also important as a morphological manifestation in

contrast to the 3 and 4, in the world of minerals; the fifth appears for the first time in plants.

As a morphological constant, not only in the number of blossoms but also in the main series

of laws of the spacing of leaves ... the number 5 appears here ... as an isolated form constant.

It is, in harmonical terms, the "sex-tone” and we have in this emphasis on the third, and its

splitting into major and minor thirds at least one of the hitherto-unknown prototypical reasons

why sex came into manifestation for the first time in plants."

Another connection in the presence of the number 5 is found in the spiral of fifths and the

comma in the principle of growing and living progress on into another cycle. Without the

comma, there could be no progress and, without the third and the fifth, no search for

resolution.

Discussing the sex-tone further, Kayser continues: "One who is musical enough to

distinguish, not only between major and minor thirds, but who can recognise in the sounds of

the two, that character of longing which lies in the innermost nature of this interval – the

singing in thirds in folk-music, for example, or the third as the real mediant (or supplicant, as

it could be envisaged) – acquires a deeper dimension of meaning." The sexual aspect, he

explains, "has received its relation to the essence of life itself; that "longing" which is latent

"in the depths of inorganic matter and in the atom is expressed, for the first time, as sensitivity

in plants and gives birth to the polarity of sex.

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Therefore, sex is decisive in two ways, for living creatures: - first, as the physiological factor,

in the thrust towards higher development, of organic forms; and, second, "as a psychic and

spiritual recognition of the esoteric impulse toward the divine, for which (the divine) the

whole living world aims ..."

"That longing" (that impulse towards the divine), the aim to rediscover and retain lost

harmony, dissipated in the descent into matter, is the real motivation in all development and

all progress. From a position of intolerable disharmony, life is compelled to seek something

better and to struggle for it, through the aegis of the comma, which impels it onwards. From

that irrational discrepancy in all mathematical calculations, reactions are set in motion that

must continue until they end in resolution which is the attainment of a spiritual/physical

equilibrium and harmony.

It is wonder enough that the Creative Power, having initiated the process of manifestation –

the sentient world – should have provided the very means whereby they can also be brought

to a resolution and that it is found, hidden from our interpretation, in the mathematical ratios

which make it possible. There is much more that could be indicated – but one cannot

comment on everything.

Figs: 42 and 43 show Fibonacci arrangement in Sunflower: 3, 4, 5 arrangements by Doczi;

seven-arrangement in Celandine (Grohman); fourfold and eightfold-ness in plant-stalks

(Roberts); and the simulation of harmonic origins of the growth of rose-bushes, after pruning.

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