G Comparison letween Animal and Vegetable Life. 95 



mother tree, a certain set of veins arising in the branch from 

 which the seed proceeds, and passing through tiit; cover into tlie 

 interior, is ilioroiighly piled with a proper Liquid, to lie used as 

 soon as the division takes place : the seed is then divided fruni 

 tlie tree, and the vein closed, wliich has in the mean time spread 

 all its meandering hruwlies on the cake, aiid now open their 

 tiny mouths to produce (with the joint juices of that spongy 

 matter) the sort of milky fluid to nourish the yoiuig plant, till 

 the root is formed for tlie purpose. But the seed has one ad- 

 vantage unknown to the foetus: " if At the first shooting of the 

 root it is destroyed, the cake again receives the last juices re- 

 maining in the nourishing vessels, and forms witii its assistance 

 milk sufficient t-o supply the young one with support till the 

 growth of the root is renewed." It may however be said, that 

 the ciiild is not exposed to a similar disaster, and requires not 

 therefore such a remedy. This exact imitation of the foetus 

 with the embryo shows that I was right in persisting tliat the 

 seminal leaves had nothing to do in nourishing the plant, and 

 were merely formed to protect the emhryo when leaving its ex- 

 terior cover, and to serve as lungs to the young plant; and that, 

 «o far from bestowing nutriment, it required more itself than any 

 other part. I showed this before I knew how the human foetas 

 was managed in this respect, and could not therefore be misled 

 hy the analogy, which is but too often the case when the know- 

 ledge of human anatomy j)recedcs the dissection of botanical ob- 

 jects. The different covers also of the seed may be compared 

 to the true and spongy chorion; the last is opaque and thick like 

 the white cover of the seed, and the interior clear, as is the first 

 envelope of the young one, while the heart of the seed first floats 

 in a liquor that may well be compared to the liquor amnii. It 

 is curious that in the latter months of pregnancy the spongy 

 chorion becomes gradually thinner and more connected with the 

 true chorion, which is also the case with the stonv fruit and 

 «eed. The seed is so easily divided from the mother plant, is 

 obliged to receive that assistance from the cover of its seed the 

 child receives from its mother, and which nutriment the seed 

 took in from its parent plant as long as it preserverl its hold. 

 The innumerable open-mouthed vessels in the outward exterior 

 of Its ease, take in both juices and gases, to be seen flowing into 

 the interior and changing constantly. It is truly astonishing to 

 «ee the excessive assistance of this sort the seed receives daily 

 before it is again placed In the ground, and before it forms its 

 radicle: in opening one seed each day, 1 have rarely found it 

 withoiTt sorrre new vessels running from the exterior. The seed 

 i* of coTjrse iBfinitcIy quickor in forming than the feetus ; for 



scarcely 



