SECT. I. 



THE SEED. '265 



yet undergone any thing like a rigorous scrutiny, 

 that already many changes have been found 

 necessary, and that future investigations will in all 

 probability point out the necessity of more. In 

 watching the germination of Fern-seed, Mirbel ob- 

 served some substances which he regards as coty- 

 ledons, and so far supports the position of Hedwig ; 

 but whether he represents them as being monocoty- 

 ledonous, or dicotyledonous, I do not now recol- 

 lect, as it is several years since I have seen his 

 book.* 



The Plantlct. The Plantlet, which implies 

 merely the future plant in miniature, is the interior 

 and essential portion of the embryo, and seat of 

 vegetable life. In some seeds it is so minute as to 



o 



be scarcely perceptible ; while in others it is so 

 large as to be divisible into distinct parts, as in the 

 Garden Bean (PL VIII. Fig. 2.), in which it is 

 situated near the scar, being partly lodged within 

 the lobes, and partly in a small and conical process, 

 projecting beyond the general line of their circum- 

 ference and uniting them together. 



The portion that is lodged within the lobes cor- Its parts. 

 responds to the caudex ascendens of Linnaeus, being 

 the rudiments of the future leaf and stem, and 

 generally denominated the plumelet ; and the por- 

 tion that is lodged within the conical process cor- 

 responds to the caudex dcscendens of Linnaeus, 



* Trait. d'Anat. et Phys. Vcger.; 



