ABSTRACT
In this work I have tried to set out and subject to critical analysis the many analogies which have been made, by a great variety of writers, between biology and the applied arts, in particular architecture. My purpose in doing this is twofold: it is to show what I believe to be useful and valuable in such analogies, and to show what I believe to be dangerous and pernicious. Thus the work is written with a theoretical and polemical purpose first of all – although some small contributions are offered to the history of ideas and to art history along the way.
