25 



On the extraearpellary attachment of the Seeds in some Natural Orders. 

 Read before the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow by the 

 Second Secretary J. Schykofsky. (Bulletin de la Soc. Imp. des Natura- 

 listes de Moscou, 1837. No. V.*) 



" Ye shall know them by their fruits." 



Certainly these sacred words were pronounced in an alle- 

 gorical sense and for a moral purpose, but the continuation of 

 the same verse shews us that the fruit of a plant must neces- 

 sarily serve as the expression of its existence c Do men 

 gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? So that we also 

 as enquirers into Nature, must be guided in a strict sense 

 by this principle laid down by our Saviour. 



In our times the importance of the fruit in the systematic 

 arrangement of plants in natural groups, called families or 

 orders, is undisputed. In the fruit and seed indeed is ex- 

 pressed, in a condensed form, the whole being of any plant. 

 In the vegetable germ exists the soul as it were of every race, 

 of every variety of the vegetable life or that creative idea of 

 Plato, by means of which, from one and to all appearance the 

 same vegetable atom, from one elementary cellular tissue, in 

 which our observation, even when assisted by the best mi- 

 croscope, cannot detect the slightest differences, there proceeds 

 in one instance a rosebud, in another the fragrant lily of the 

 valley. 



And if the experienced eye of the observer can often 

 recognise the species and the form of any plant from the mere 

 inspection of a common leaf-bud,t or even of a single leaf, so 

 will he much more readily and correctly ascertain it by the 



* The observations of Schleiden, and the arguments he employs to 

 prove that the seeds are very often, if not always, bodies produced by the axis 

 of a branch, having no original communication with the carpels, but merely 

 housed in by them, are now becoming generally known, A brief account of 

 the views of that very original observer is given in my Introdxiction to Botany, 

 ed. 3. p. 208, and I entertain no doubt that his theory is true. I am, there- 

 fore, sure that the preseut paper will be read with great interest, as it shews 

 that another observer, much less known than Schleiden, had previously 

 arrived at the same conclusion. But as M. Schykofsky wrote his memoir 

 in the Russian language, it has hitherto remained unknown to all Botanists, 

 except such as can read that tongue. For the translation now published 

 I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Bentham. Let us hope that M.« 

 Schykofsky will make his future discoveries known in some language less 

 inaccessible than his own. 



f V. Charakteristik der deutschen Holzgewachse in blattlosem zustande 

 von Dr. Jos. Joh. Zuccarini, Munchen, 1829-1831. 



April E— 1841. d 



