Of these vessels^ which are called anthers, the figures^ the cells^ the modes of opening, are 

 no less accurately defined, than the capsules of fruits, and the Jririna, like seeds, has its precise 

 magnitude, colour, and figure. 



The PISTILLUM derives its origin from the medullary substance in plants, and therefore is 

 placed in the center of each flower; and in this part are always found the rudiments of the seed, 

 which advances by degrees into a fruit. 



This part is called the Germen, to which is always affixed another part, which is named 

 Stigma, and is most in vigour at the period of flowering. 



The meduUarif, is the most essential part in vegetables, and is multiplied and extended ad 

 injinitum, so that whenever this is lost, the plant of necessity must die. 



When considering this subject, we must carefully avoid being led into error by two seeming- 

 objections; first, as regards the culms of grasses, and other hollow stems, where the medullary 

 part will be found to line the inner part of the bark; and, secondly, in large trees, where the 

 trunk is altogether solid, but here the extreme branches have their necessary medulla. 



Thus vegetables, like insects, are changed by a metamorphosis, and with this distinction only, 

 that flowers remain fixed to one spot, nor are they furnished with chylopoietic viscera, as with 

 most insects,, and these are also fed by the parent plants to which they are attached. 



Thus it is, that the Cortex is changed into the CALYX; the Liber into the COROLLA; 

 the Wood into the STAMINA; and the Medulla into the PISTILLUM.* 



Thus it is, that iiiQ fructification exhibits the common parts of plants naked and unfolded. 

 Thus it is, that fructification puts an end to growth in that part where it springs, otherwise 

 it would have shot forward into branches, and so on, ad infinitum, but now becomes expended 

 here by explicating new and distinct animated bodies^ with their seeds. 



And since the seeds are the medulla naked in the germen, and this medulla requires to be fed 

 and increased by the cortical substance, (whence all nourishment and growth proceeds in plants, 

 as well as animals), hence these seeds cannot advance a step without this necessary aid from that 

 active supporter of life, which these have become separated from. 



Hence the medullarij seeds require to receive the cortical covering from the farina in the anthers^ 

 which, as we have proved before, is derived from the Cortex {outer bark). How this invest- 

 ment takes place has been variously explained. 



MoRLANDf and others assert, led to it by the doctrine of Leuwenhook, that \h(t farina 

 enters by the stigma, passes along the style, and then pervades the tender rudiments of the 

 seeds. 



That this doctrine is not founded in fact, appears from several observations. 

 A most evident contradiction is furnished by the Amaryllis Formosissima {Jacobean 

 Amaryllis), which explains this mysterious circumstance. 



The flower of the Amaryllis, when produced in the hot-house, has its pistillum pointing 

 downwards, when from its stigma there oozes about midday a liinpid clear drop, which shortly in- 

 creases to such a size, that one expects every instant to see it fall. 



* This doctrine of Linnaeus is considered at full in our " Philosophy of Botany," to which we refer the reader. 

 f The arguments of Morland are stated at length in our " Philosophy of Botany" 



By 



