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organs of production, the flower, the fruit, and the seeds. 
The cause of this it is well known lies in this, that the organs 
of re-production, being nothing else than the same organs of 
vegetation, by the superior quality or more perfect elaboration 
of the juices of which they are composed, as well as by their 
closer and more compressed position, contain much more 
definite outlines of their form. 
Who among Naturalists can read without heartfelt plea- 
sure in the life of Bernard de Jussieu, whose modesty should 
ever be an example to us, that amusing anecdote which attests 
the peculiar practical knowledge he had of all the species 
forming the flora of the environs of Paris, even in their mi- 
nutest peculiarities.* 
On this characteristic constancy in the form of seeds is 
founded, as is well known, one of the most important duties of 
the directors of botanical gardens—that of verifying the names 
and labels attached to the seeds sent out on exchange to other 
botanical gardens. It is an agreeable duty to me to mention 
here, by the way, the reputation which the Directors of our 
own National Botanical Gardens enjoy in Europe, in this 
respect: the Councillor of State, Theodor Bogdanovitch 
Fischer, of the Imperial St. Petersburgh Garden, and the 
esteemed Professor, Councillor of State, and Chevalier, 
Charles Theodorovitch Ledebur, of the Dorpat University 
Garden, formerly my superior. | 
It is extraordinary that the immortal author of the sexual 
system should have turned his attention so little to the fruit 
and seeds ; directing it so much more to the flowering organs. 
Was it not that he had derived from these the principles of his 
sexual system, to which he had become attached, as the foun- 
dation, in a manner, of his own celebrity? This is the more 
surprising, as he could not but be aware of how much the 
structure of the fruit and seed had served Cesalpin, Tournefort, 
and his friend and contemporary, Bernard de Jussieu, in the 
bringing plants together into natural families, which, as is 
known, Linneus himself considered to be the crown of bota- 
* Some of his pupils, wild young Parisians, wishing to amuse them- 
selves in their botanical excursions, made up artificial flowers compoun 
from various plants. The respected Professor recognised immediately on the 
calyx of one flower the petals of such another one, the stamens of such a 
third one, &c. The same kind of knowledge distinguished the Student 
Ruppius who published a Flora of Jena, in the year 1718. 
