1 24 Development of the Natural System under [BOOK i. 



Above all, Gartner put an end to the blunder of regarding 

 dry indehiscent fruits as naked seeds, by rightly defining the 

 pericarp as in all cases the ripened wall of the ovary, and by 

 considering its strong or weak construction, its dry or pulpy 

 condition, as a secondary matter. It is obvious that the whole 

 theory of the flower was thus placed upon a better basis, since 

 dry indehiscent fruits may come from inferior or superior ovaries. 

 But Gartner's theory of the seed is one of his most valuable 

 contributions to the science. After careful consideration of 

 the seed-envelopes, he submitted the inner portion (nucleus) 

 enclosed by them to a searching comparative examination ; 

 he correctly distinguished the endosperm from the cotyledons, 

 and described the variations in its form and position. This 

 was the more needful, since Linnaeus had denied the existence 

 of an * albumen ' in plants, which Grew had already recognised 

 and so named ; to Linnaeus it appeared to be of no use to the 

 seed. Though Gartner speaks of the cotyledons as uniting 

 with the embryo to form the nucleus of the seed, yet his 

 account shows that he regarded them as outgrowths of the 

 embryo itself. The uncertainty which still existed in the inter- 

 pretation of the parts of the seed is shown even in Gartner by 

 his curious notion of a ' vitellus,' which in fact takes in every- 

 thing that he was unable to explain aright inside the seed ; 

 for instance, he makes the scutellum in grasses, and even the 

 cotyledonary bodies of Zamia a vitellus, and applies the same 

 name to the whole contents of the spores of Seaweeds, Mosses, 

 and Ferns. In spite of the striking defects connected with 

 this mistaken notion in his theory of the seed, his views far 

 surpass in clearness and consistency all that had hitherto been 

 taught on the subject. His giving the term embryo to that 

 part of the seed which is capable of development was also an 

 advance in respect of logic and morphology, in spite of his 

 mistake in not admitting the cotyledons which are attached to 

 the embryo into the conception ; this, however, could easily 

 be corrected at a later time. What Gartner now named the 



