246 PROSERPINA. 



5. The husk, or seed-vessel, is seen in perfect 

 simplicity of type in the pod of a bean, or the 

 globe of a poppy. There are, I believe, flowers in 

 which it is absent or imperfect; and when it 

 contains only one seed, it may be so small and 

 closely united with the seed it contains, that both 

 will be naturally thought of as one thing only. 

 Thus, in a dandelion, the little brown grains, which 

 may be blown away, each with its silken parachute, 

 are every one of them a complete husk and seed 

 together. But the majority of instances (and those 

 of plants the most serviceable to man) in which 

 the seed-vessel has entirely a separate structure and 

 mechanical power, justify us in giving it the normal 

 term 'husk,' as the most widely applicable and 

 intelligible. 



6. The change of green, hard, and tasteless 

 vegetable substance into beautifully coloured, soft, 

 and delicious substance, which produces what we 

 call a fruit, is, in most cases, of the husk only; in 

 others, of the part of the stalk which immediately 

 sustains the seed ; and in a very few instances, 

 not properly a change, but a distinct formation, of 

 fruity substance between the husk and seed. Nor- 

 mally, however, the husk, like the seed, consists 

 always of three parts; it has an outer skin, a 

 central substance of peculiar nature, and an inner 



