abies ee 
XI. On the Fiuctification af Sede: By Mrs. Anes 
IBBETSON. 
To Mr. Tilloch. 
Sir, — if SHOWED in my last letter the formation of the hearts 
ofseed in the roots of a plant. I showed also its progress up the 
alburnum vessels, and its entrance into the bag of the seed, the 
contour of the bag being really formed of that line of life which 
ties the hearts of the seeds together as they mount from the root. 
See fig. 1. 
I have before giyen many specimens of the manner in which 
the seeds are half filled by the juices of the atmosphere; then 
completed by a powder flowing upwards from the root ;—there 
I stopped. 1 shall now give the next process, which always fol - 
lows directly ; viz. * the fructification of the seeds ;”” that is, the 
conveying the powder of the pollen when dissolved in the juices 
of the pistil down to the seeds, allowing each vessel to enter.each 
different seed, and bestow its quantum of matter on all by turns. 
This takes place assoon as the seed has.received all that which 
may be called its-nutriment ; and is so different from the fal- 
lowing process, that there is no fear of confounding them to- 
gether. This last operation takes place as soon as the flower is 
full blown, and therefore arrived at its greatest perfection. ‘The 
nectareous juice is then seen by the naked eye to mount the pi- 
stil, and settle in a Jarge drop on the stigma: this it doth each 
sunny day; and even if the flower is turned downwards, (likea 
campanula,) still the drop appears to hang and never to fadd, but 
returns within the style down the pistil, ito the secret nectary, 
where it remains all night, and reappears next morning in the 
same situation on the stigma till the pollen is ripe; when, the 
dust falling on the stigma, the various apertures thus impressed - 
reveive and secure it, and it remains there visibly till it is com- 
pletely dissolved. 
That any one should deny the sexual system, who has regu- 
larly dissected flowers and plants (especially if done progressively) , 
{can never believe. That the pistil is formed to receive and re- 
duce the flower of the pollen, which clings to it, and that it 
then carries the mixt juice down tothe little branch in the heart 
of the seed, vivifying and exciting its growth, —is certainly true ; 
and let the different figures of the flower be ever so various in 
this respect, it will be exactly the same in its result. This con- 
stant progress take place, and the whole progressive move- 
ments succeed cach other in constant routine. Nor can I con- 
ceive how botanists could reeoneile the doubt they made with 
respect to the trough in the style and stigma, and therefore to 
Vol. 52, No. 244, Aug. 1818. BR its 
