234 



PROSERPINA. 



name for seed and seed-vessel together than that the bot- 

 anists now use, ' fruit. ' But practically, even now, 

 people feel that they can't gather figs of thistles, and 

 never speak of the fructification of a thistle, or of the 

 fruit of a dandelion. And, re-assembling now, in one 

 view, the words we have determined on, they will be 

 found enough for all practical service, and in such service 

 always accurate, and, usually, suggestive. I repeat 

 them in brief order, with such farther explanation as 

 they need. 



11. All ripe products of the life of flowers consist 

 essentially of the Seed and Husk, these being, in cer- 

 tain cases, sustained, surrounded, or provided with means 

 of motion, by other parts of the plant ; or by develop- 

 ments of their own form which require in each case dis- 

 tinct names. Thus the white cushion of the dandelion 

 to which its brown seeds are attached, and the personal 

 parachutes which belong to each, must be separately de- 

 scribed for that species of plants ; it is the little brown 

 thing they sustain and carry away on the wind, which 

 must be exaftiined as the essential product of the floret ; 

 the ' seed and husk. ' 



12. Every seed has a husk, holding either that seed 

 alone, or other seeds with it. 



Every perfect seed consists of an embryo, and the sub- 

 stance which first nourishes that embryo ; the whole en- 

 closed in a sack or other sufficient envelope. Three es- 

 sential parts altogether. 



