Organization in Pha^nogamous Plants, 1 B7 



meration of names, Nympheeacece and Cahomhece^ the Plumha- 

 ginece, Rcsedacecc^ Passiflorce, Caryophyllcce^ and Cruciferce. 



Mirbel was the first who published any detailed account of 

 the general formation of these integuments of the nucleus ; 

 but although he has partially observed the phaenomena ac- 

 companying their formation, he has evidently been far from 

 understanding them, and could not therefore clearly explain 

 the process ; and it is indeed scarcely possible to collect from 

 his own words what was his real opinion of the matter. We 

 are indebted to R. Brown, who has struck out so many new 

 paths in this and every other department of botany, for the 

 first correct account of their mode of formation in the Orchi- 

 dece in 1831, and at a later date (in 1834?) in his dissertation 

 on the female flowers of the Uaffiesia^, in which he extended 

 his observations to many other families. Fritsche has how- 

 ever furnished the most detailed account of this subject in 

 Wiegmann's Archiv, but he has confined his observations en- 

 tirely to one species, and that the least favourable to such an 

 investigation on account of its compressed growth and ana- 

 tropous ovule. He has also neglected to take accurate mi- 

 crometrical measurements, a point of the utmost importance 

 here, by which alone he would have been able to avoid some 

 errors. Thus, for instance, the expansion of a cylinder un- 

 derneath a given line, and its contraction above it, are cir- 

 cumstances which can only be ascertained in objects so minute 

 by means of comparative measurements, since, of course, every 

 stage of the process cannot undergo examination at the same 

 time, and these differences are of the greatest importance to 

 the true appreciation of the subject. In this manner Fritsche 

 has fallen into the error, on the one hand, of supposing that 

 both integuments are a simultaneous formation produced by 

 the inflexion of the first fold into the body of the ovule, and 

 on the other hand he has viewed the formation of the inner 

 integument in too confined a manner, as a mere fold of the 

 epidermis nuclei. 



The plan which nature adopts is simply this : — The exam- 

 ple I shall select is that of the atropous ovule, for instance of 

 the Polygonecc (fig. 4), as being the most simple. At a certain 

 distance below the apex of the original protuberance an ideal 

 line may be recognised, intended as the basis of the nucleus 

 (fig. 4? Z>.), which does not afterwards increase in thickness. 

 Above this line the apex forms itself into the nucleus^ and be- 

 low it the substance of the axis expands and forms a protu- 

 berance (fig. 4 Z>.), which extending itself as a kind of mem- 



[* Account of the results of Mr. Brown's researches on these subjects 

 will be found in Phil. Mag. and Annals, N. S. vol. x. p. 437> and Lond. and 

 Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. v. p. 70.— Edit.] 



