464 Imperial Ins lit ule of France. 



like drops oF water ; and at most in the proportion of one 

 to thirty with respect to the former. 



M. de Beauvois, who regards the opaque grains as the 

 pollen, thinks that ihe transparent bodies which are mixed 

 there are a species of buds or bulbs, calculated to send 

 forth new plants, and that it was these which germinated 

 when Hedvvig and other observers obtained young plants 

 bv sowing the dust of the lycopodii and the mosses : these 

 experiments can therefore no longer be opposed to him. 



With respect to the true crains, they are placed according 

 to him in a different manner in the lycopodii and in the 

 mosses : the axillae of the leaves of the lower part of the 

 ear contain in some plants of the former family, small 

 capsules, each containing some grains larger than tlie dust 

 of the upper capsules, which have been considered as seeds 

 by Dillenius, and by all those who, like him, regarded the 

 dust as'a pollen. 



M. Willdenow regards them as a species of bulbs; and it 

 is the common opinion of those who will not admit any 

 sexes in the mosses, the lycopodii, and the other crypto- 

 gamia. 



But M. de Beauvois finds that these grains have all the 

 characters of organization assigned to the seeds by the 

 most accurate botanists, and that consequently we cannot 

 hesitate to regard them as such, although they have not as 

 yet been discovered in all the lycopodii : he admits, never- 

 theless, that he has not succeeded in raising them, but this 

 he ascribes to their havina been in too fresh a state. 



We briefly noticed in our two former reports, the discus- 

 sions between our associates, Mirbel and Richard, on the 

 internal composition of the grain of certain vegetables. As 

 these discussions had nothing less in view than the subver- 

 sion of all the present systems, they were conducted with a 

 warmth proportionate to their importance, and it becomes 

 necessary for us to give some account of the point at which 

 the dispute has arrived. For this purpose we must lake up 

 the suijjact a little earlier. 



When we immerse in water a bean, for exansple, it sooa 

 splits, and at the junction of the two lobes which form 

 the greater part of its mass, we observe on one hand a small 

 fleshy-like body of a conical figure, and on the other two 

 small leaves equally distinct. If we had made this bean 

 germinate, the conical part woidd have entered into the 

 ground and would have formed the root, the two small 

 leaves would have risen into the air, and from them the rest 

 of the plant would have been continued j the two large 



lobes 



I 



