30 



bud or new shoot on which are developed, in their turn, leaves 

 bearing asrain in their axillse fresh buds. 



Thinking it out of place here to enter into any critical re- 

 view of the small but acute composition of Agardh, published 

 at Lund in 1828, under the title of Essai de reduire la Physi- 

 ologic vegetale a. des Principes fondamentaux, I shall only 

 say, that according to Agardh's theory, the organ which bears 

 the seeds is the representative of the branch or shoot springing 

 ■from the axilla of the carpellary leaf. 



Under the guidance of Bacon's rule for the study of science, 

 so especially applicable to the investigations of naturalists — 

 " Malo Academiam ruminantem, quamquse nova detegit,"- — I 

 applied myself, in the years 1831 and 1832, to the investigation 

 of the structure of fruits and seeds. My intention was to ascer- 

 tain how far facts bore out the theory of the learned Swede, 

 derived merely from the general laws of vegetation, as it were 

 a priori, without adducing in support of it a single example 

 taken from the observation of nature. 



To my no small satisfaction, I became, from day to day, 

 more and more convinced, both from my own analyses and 

 those of other accurate observers, of the correctness of Agardh's 

 views ; and moreover, I saw that all those appearances which 

 speak the most in favour of DeCandolle's theory, can also, 

 without effort or violence, be demonstrated according to the 

 principles laid down by Agardh; for example, the apparent 

 arrangement of the seeds on the two margins of the carpellary 

 leaf at the opening of the pod of Leguminosse, the frequent 

 recurrence of an even number of ovules in simple polysper- 

 mous carpels, or in each cell of compound fruits, &c. ; and 

 that on the other hand all those appearances which after 

 DeCandolle's ideas can with difficulty, or as he himself ad- 

 mits, cannot at all be explained — for example, the attachment 

 of the seeds in the fruit of Cruciferae, the structure of Boragi-- 

 nea3, Ochnacese, Labiatse, &c, become under Agardh's theory, 

 examples for the explanation of the appearance of the fruit of 

 other natural families in the simplest and most satisfactory 

 manner. 



Several unpleasant circumstances did not allow me, in the 

 Dissertation which I drew up in 1832, for obtaining the highest 

 degree in the Philosophical faculty of the Imperial University 

 of Dorpat, to state my observations with sufficient detail and 



