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organs of production, the flower, the fruit, and the seeds. 

 The cause of this it is well known lies in this, that the organs 

 of re-production, being nothing else than the same organs of 

 vegetation, by the superior quality or more perfect elaboration 

 of the j uices of which they are composed, as well as by their 

 closer and more compressed position, contain much more 

 definite outlines of their form. 



Who among Naturalists can read without heartfelt plea- 

 sure in the life of Bernard de Jussieu, whose modesty should 

 ever be an example to us, that amusing anecdote which attests 

 the peculiar practical knowledge he had of all the species 

 forming the flora of the environs of Paris, even in their mi- 

 nutest peculiarities.* 



On this characteristic constancy in the form of seeds is 

 founded, as is well known, one of the most important duties of 

 the directors of botanical gardens — that of verifying the names 

 and labels attached to the seeds sent out on exchange to other 

 botanical gardens. It is an agreeable duty to me to mention 

 here, by the way, the reputation which the Directors of our 

 own National Botanical Gardens enjoy in Europe, in this 

 respect : the Councillor of State, Theodor Bogdanovitch 

 Fischer, of the Imperial St. Petersburgh Garden, and the 

 esteemed Professor, Councillor of State, and Chevalier, 

 Charles Theodorovitch Ledebur, of the Dorpat University 

 Garden, formerly my superior. 



It is extraordinary that the immortal author of the sexual 

 system should have turned his attention so little to the fruit 

 and seeds ; directing it so much more to the flowering organs. 

 Was it not that he had derived from these the principles of his 

 sexual system, to which he had become attached, as the foun- 

 dation, in a manner, of his own celebrity ? This is the more 

 surprising, as he could not but be aware of how much the 

 structure of the fruit and seed had served Cesalpin,Tournefort, 

 and his friend and contemporary, Bernard de Jussieu, in the 

 bringing plants together into natural families, which, as is 

 known, Linnaeus himself considered to be the crown of bota- 



* Some of his pupils, wild young Parisians, wishing to amuse them- 

 selves in their botanical excursions, made up artificial flowers compounded 

 from various plants. The respected Professor recognised immediately on the 

 calyx of one flower the petals of such another one, the stamens of such a 

 third one, &c. The same kind of knowledge distinguished the Student 

 Ruppius who published a Flora of Jena, in the year 1718. 



