30 
bud or new shoot on which are developed, in their turn, leaves 
bearing again in their axille fresh buds. 
Thinking it out of place here to enter into any critical re- 
view of the small but acute composition of Agardh, published 
at Lund in 1828, under the title of Essai de reduire la Physi- 
ologie végétale 4 des Principes fondamentaux, I shall only 
say, that according to Agardh’s theory, the organ which bears 
the seeds is the representative of the branch or shoot springing 
trom the axilla of the carpellary leaf. 
Under the guidance of Bacon’s rule for the study of science, 
so especially applicable to the investigations of naturalists— 
‘Malo Academiam ruminantem, quam que. nova detegit,’”—I 
applied myself, in the years 1831 and 1832, to the investigation 
of the structure of fruits and seeds. My intention was to ascer- 
tain how far facts bore out the theory of the learned Swede, 
derived merely from the general laws of vegetation, as it were 
a priort, without adducing in support of it a single example 
taken from the observation of nature. 
To my no small satisfaction, I became, from day to day, 
more and more convinced, both from my own analyses and 
those of other accurate observers, of the correctness of Agardh’s 
views; and moreover, I saw that all those appearances which 
speak the most in favour of DeCandolle’s theory, can also, 
without effort or violence, be demonstrated according to the 
principles laid down by Agardh; for example, the apparent 
arrangement of the seeds on the two margins of the carpellary 
leaf at the opening of the pod of Leguminosm, the frequent 
recurrence of an even number of ovules in simple polysper- 
mous carpels, or in each cell of compound fruits, &c.; and 
that on the other hand all those appearances which after 
DeCandolle’s ideas can with difficulty, or as he himself ad- 
mits, cannot at all be explained—for example, the attachment 
of the seeds in the fruit of Crucifere, the structure of Boragi- 
new, Ochnacex, Labiate, &c.; become under Agardh’s theory, 
examples for the explanation of the appearance of the fruit of 
other natural families in the simplest and most satisfactory 
manner. : 
Several unpleasant circumstances did not allow me, in the 
Dissertation which I drew up in 1882, for obtaining the highest 
degree in the Philosophical faculty of the Imperial University 
of Dorpat, io state my observations with sufficient detail and 
