DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRS. ^0/ 



tentive physiologist, that even dissection is unnecessary. I 

 shall also, in describing the seed, prove the truth of all I 

 have hitherto advanced on this subject, and shall continue 

 to take ray specimens of the pines from the Scotch fir. There 

 is a curious particular concerning them, yet unknown I be- 

 lieve. The cones of the present year are not impregnated 

 till the following; nor are they fit for planting, or will they 

 come off the tree, till the succeeding season. When they 

 are first seen on the new shoot, the stamens have already 

 exhausted all their powder: besides, the cones have at that 

 time no seed within them. But the following May, as soon 

 as the stamens make their appearance, the cones, if watched, 

 will exhibit a beautiful sight. On each squama will be 

 seen two brilliant drops of liquid, the juice of the pistil, 

 appearing toward noon, and subsiding in the evening. For 

 s little time it will continue thus, till the stamen has risen 

 out of its calyx, and each anther hangs like a basket of 

 gold dust, ready to disperse in air. In a short time the 

 drops on each pistil get saturated, and pass down to the 

 seed, which they impregnate ; running the line of life, filled 

 with the mixed liquor, into each seed, and forming the cor- 

 culum. As soon as the heart is perfected, the same line 

 shoots lower, and produces the pocket, which is the out- 

 ward cuticle of the embryo, and the cotyledons,. When 

 the pocket is large enough it joins to the heart, and the 



u cotyledons begin to grow ; and this is a long process in the 



" fir tribe of plants, where there are from 5 to IQ in each seed. 



^ *l know no plants so capable of proving the mistake into The cotyle- 

 which most botanists have fallen, ** in supposing the coty- ^^"^/^o "o* 



j ledons nourish the embryo"; for though these seeds, hke embryo. 



I all others, have the 8 parts perfect; yet, being of the foli- 

 ferous kind, they are so very diminutive, a large magnifier 

 is required to see them. Would then most nourish- 

 ment be formed, where there was hardly any embryo to 

 feed ? Besides, as I have before observed, the cotyledons 

 are a part of the embryo ; it would therefore be nourishing 

 one part with the other; an idea not to be supported, la 

 the firs also the nourishing vessels are so very plain, that all 

 must see them. See fig, 4 and 5. 

 Having now explained the Scotch firs, as an example of The cyprew 



