70 THE PLANT OVUM LESS, vi 



embryo-sac or megaspore (see Fig. 89, D), at one end of 

 which is a microscopic cell (ov, and Fig. 1 2 B), consisting as 

 usual of protoplasm (plsm), nucleus (nu\ and nucleolus 

 (nu). This is the ovum or egg-cell of the plant : from it 

 the new plant, which springs from the germinating seed, 

 arises. Thus the higher plants, like the higher animals, are, 

 in their earliest stage of existence, microscopic and 

 unicellular. 



