388 CHANGES SUCCEEDING IMPREGNATION. CHAP, VIII. 



ovary ; the middle envelope is the green film, now 

 changing to brown ; the inner envelope is the pro- 

 per integument of the albumen. The albumen is 

 now pretty firm ; the embryo plainly distinguish- 

 able into its radicle, plumelet, and scale-like appen- 

 dages, whether vitellus or cotyledon ; the scale 

 being T V f an ^ ncn * n length, the plantlet T V- 



On the 28th, when the seed was now at its full 

 size, being more than one fourth of an inch in length, 

 the nectary scales were still adherent to the base of 

 the ovary ; but shrunk to a thin membrane, though 

 retaining their fringed borders. The green film was 

 now more closely united to the inner envelope. 

 The embryo was also very distinctly seen by means 

 of removing the envelopes, and easily extricated 

 from the albumen 9 on the surface of which it is ae- 

 cumbent. It measured together with its scale-like 

 vitellus -yV of an inch in length by -^ in breadth. The 

 vitellus does not seem to be very correctly discribed 

 by calling it a scale, or at least, not completely de- 

 scribed ; for at the base of the scale and continuous 

 with its substance, there may now be seen project- 

 ing a sort of little bag or pocket with an upright 

 flap in front, in which the radicle of the embryo is 

 lodged, and out of which the plumelet protrudes 

 itself accumbent on the upper part of the scale. 



On the 1st of August, when the seed seemed 

 nearly ripe, and the scale measured -^ of an inch in 

 length by T '- s in breadth, the plumelet had increased 

 Considerably in size, filling up almost the whole of 



