•274 Professor Henslows Examination 



Possibly I have not given this part of the investigation sufficient 

 attention'. When the ovules are digested in nitric acid, the de- 

 tached cells assume an oval shape, Fig. 15. (o), and are yellowish. 

 But among them I several times observed a larger cell (/>) which 

 was more transparent and whiter, and which I fancied might be 

 the origin of the embryonic sack. These component parts are 

 best exhibited by crushing the ovule between two flat pieces of 

 glass. Fig. 14. represents a monstrosity in which an ovule was 

 observed to stand upon a sort of pedicel. 



Recapitulation. So far then as these researches have hitherto 

 proceeded in comparing the internal structure of the floral organs 

 of the hybrid with those of its parents, no appreciable difference 

 has been detected. The elementary vesicles of which their cel- 

 lular tissue is constructed seem to be all of the same size, and 

 consequently it is evident that fewer of these vesicles must be 

 employed in the conformation of any of the parts of hybrida, 

 and still fewer in those of lutea, than in completing the corres- 

 ponding parts of purpurea. But there appears to be nothing 

 actually defective in any part of these organs in the hybrid, 

 nothing wanting of whatever is to be found in those of the two 

 parents. The nutritive apparatus more especially, so far as we 

 have examined it, seems to be quite perfect, and as the functions 

 performed by it in all three plants are precisely the same up to 

 the period when the flower falls, there seems to be no reason for 

 suspecting the hybrid to differ in any particular from its parents 

 in the perfection of its conservative organs. Since however the 

 functions of the reproductive apparatus appear to cease in 

 the hybrid before they do in the parents, it should seem that 

 there must be some deficiency in this part of its organization, 

 though it has not yet been noticed. Should the Society con- 



