SEEDS. 205 



seeds or nuts so completely as to assume the appearance 

 of forming only one compact whole, and thus the stro- 

 bile hangs upon the tree during the whole of the winter 

 season, protecting the enclosed scales ; but the heats jjt 

 of the succeeding summer have no sooner arrived than 

 the scales, formerly close and compact, begin now to 

 shrink and separate, detaching themselves from one 

 another by the whole of their connected surface, and 

 thus forming a passage for the discharge of the seeds." 



Occasionally the pericarp is wanting, when the seeds 

 are said to be naked. This however is not in all cases 

 strictly true, for they are frequently enclosed in the 

 permanent calyx; which supplies the deficiency of an 

 additional capsule. 



2. SEEDS. 



We have in the course of our inquiry seen the bud, 

 designed during the winter to protect the rudiments of 

 the flower ; we have seen all the efforts of the last 

 named organ directed to the security and fertility of 

 the germen, and we have seen how admirably this 

 germen is planned for the protection of the unripe / 

 seeds. 



The seed therefore, to which all the other parts of 

 the fructification are subservient, next presents itself to 

 our view. On this subject, botanists look to the ex- 

 cellent Gsertner for instruction ; for his work " pre- 

 sents a most finished model of analysis, and at the same 

 time exhibits the most durable monument that could 

 have been erected, of the indefatigable industry and 

 profound research of its author : so minute in his inves- 

 tigations that nothing has escaped him, and so faithful 

 ia his delineations that no one has ever surpassed hin» ." 



