]£g GROWTH OF SEEDS. 



ferent parts have made me very unwilling to fix on an ap* 

 pellation, till it is ascertained what are its parts and their 

 vses; as T cannot but imagine, that so many various appel- 

 lations have the effect of making those that write unintelli- 

 gible to one another, and much more so to those, who wish 

 for information without much previous study. I shall add 

 a little account of the names used to the sketch annexed, 

 which will, I hope, make the parts easy to be compre- 

 hended. 



Your obliged servant, 



Bellevue, near Exeter. A. IBBETSON. 



Explanation of Plate V. 



Fig. 1. Representation of the bean, oo the nourishing 

 vessels. L to n the seminal leaves, or cotyledons. 



I to I the embryo : what I esteem the first shoot which the 

 nerve of life makes, when it enters the corculum, or heart, 

 which is more easily seen in the seed of the lily as at fig. 2, 

 //, where it crosses the empty part of the corculum as before 

 explained. 



When I took out the line of life in the bean, it was the 

 two vessels within, from / to /. When in the lily, fig. 3, 

 I merely divided the line /, preventing that communication 

 from seed to seed, and not touching o o, which I think is- 

 the nourishing vessel, as may be seen at fig. 2, o, where they 

 enter. Fig. 4 is the seed of the gooseberry, o the nourish- 

 ing vessels, / the line of life, and m the corculum, or heart. 

 Fig. 5 is the heart taken out of the seed of a chesnut. / is 

 the circular hook, o o the nourishing vessels, and 1 1 the line 

 of life, which I took out where it crosses the heart at m. 

 In almost every kind of seed it shows itself differently. In 

 many it enters at or near the stalk, and runs under the al- 

 bumen, or outward case. Having much more studied na* 

 ture than botanical works; which indeed I began with, till 

 I found that they inclined me to embrace a system, which I 

 wished much to avoid; I have since trusted to nature only- 

 I hope therefore to be excused the contradicting any one, 

 as I may truly say. I have not advanced a thing I have not 



tried 



