8 MEYEN ON VEGETABLE IMPREGNATION 
moreover, in several of the figures of Mesembryanthemum re- 
presented in Plate II., the separation of the young embryo 
from the funiculus, which originated from the prolongation of 
the germ-vesicle, will be distinctly seen. In figs. 11 and 12 
the end of the funiculus, which has been transformed into the 
embryo, is designated by dd; in fig. 17 the constriction of the 
embryo / is still more evident; and in figs. 15 and 16 the young 
embryo is already quite separated from the funiculus, but still 
connected with it. After the formation of the young embryo 
has once taken place, the function of the funiculus seems no 
longer to be of any considerable importance, for we almost al- 
ways find it die off very soon on the further development of the 
embryo, and frequently disappear without leaving a trace, which 
in some plants occurs earlier, in others at a later period. 
Thus, then, we have arrived at the interesting result, that 
the embryo, in all those cases where it is formed in the interior 
of the embryo-sac (which undoubtedly occurs most frequently), 
does not proceed direct from the pollen-tube, but is first formed 
at the extremity of an organ, subsequently serving as its funicu- 
lus, which originates from the prolongation and further develop- 
ment of the germ-vesicle. We have further arrived at the result, 
that the embryo, on its first appearance, is nothing more than a 
simple globular cell, and thus presents the form and structure of 
the simplest plant*. ‘This state of the vegetable embryo I term 
its first stage of development, of which I distinguish principally 
three. The simple globular cell is developed from within out- 
wards, into a cellular mass, which at last adopts in most plants 
a regular globular form; and this is the state which represents 
the second stage of development ; whilst the third commences 
with a lengthening of this globe, and the production of the 
cotyledons. It is especially interesting to find these various 
stages of development of the vegetable embryo repeated in the 
different large divisions of plants, corresponding to the degree of 
their development; thus I have indicated the embryo of the 
Orchidee as one which persists at the second stage of deve- 
lopment. 
From what has hitherto been said on the act of impregnation 
in plants, it without doubt very clearly follows that we have 
met with no actual facts which justify us, much less compel us, 
* See my Report on Physiological Botany for 1837, p. 151; or the English 
Translation by Mr. W. Francis. London, 1839: R.and J. E. Taylor, pp. 120-128. 
