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CHAPTER XIII. 



THE SEED AND HUSK. 



i . "XT OT the least sorrowful, nor least absurd 

 ^- ^ of the confusions brought on us by 

 unscholarly botanists, blundering into foreign 

 languages, when they do not know how to use 

 their own, is that which has followed on their 

 practice of calling the seed-vessels of flowers 'egg- 

 vessels,' * in Latin ; thus involving total loss of 

 the power of the good old English word 'husk,' 

 and the good old French one, 'cosse.' For all 

 the treasuries of plants (see Chapter IV., § 17) may 

 be best conceived, and described, generally, as con- 

 sisting of ' seed ' and ' husk,' — for the most part 

 two or more seeds, in a husk composed of two 

 or more parts, as pease in their shell, pips in an 

 orange, or kernels in a walnut ; but whatever their 

 number, or the method of their enclosure, let the 

 student keep clear in his mind, for the base of 

 all study of fructification, the broad distinction 



* More literally, "persons to whom the care of eggs is entrusted." 



17 



