ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION. 217 



Thus, we find several species of Crinum and Ama- 

 ryllis, in which the cells of the fruit, instead of enclosing 

 seeds in the usual state, each contain only a thick, 

 round, fleshy body, on which we remark a small eye ; 

 this body is detached from the pericarp at maturity, and 

 when sown produces a new individual. Is this a tubercule 

 or bulb, as it is generally said to be ? Is it a seed, 

 modified in texture, as some modern botanists think ? 

 In order to embrace with any confidence either of these 

 opinions, we must first of all know what essential 

 difference is found between seeds and tubercules. Cannot 

 the same germ, according to the state of its developments, 

 either require fecundation, which is the ordinary case, 

 or not require it, and then be developed under the form 

 of a tubercule or bulb ? This supposition seems to 

 acquire some weight if we reflect that the germs of 

 Bryophyllum are placed in the leaf precisely as the 

 ovules in the pericarp, and, consequently, appear to be 

 of the same nature. A second example, as curious 

 though less clear, is presented to us in Lemna; the ordi- 

 nary mode of reproduction in this plant, is the develop- 

 ment of a lateral germ situated upon the margin of the 

 foliaceous disc which composes the whole plant; this 

 germ, on developing, forms a second foliaceous disc, 

 united to the first, but which afterwards separates and 

 forms an entire plant. When these plants happen to 

 flower, which is very rarely the case, the flowers are 

 found precisely in the same point where the germ 

 usually is ; whence we may suppose that this germ can 

 be developed, according to circumstances, with or without 

 fecundation. 



Lastly, we shall see in the following Chapter, that 

 there are Cryptogamous plants, in which it is perfectly 

 impossible to affirm whether their development results 

 from a true fecundation, or from circumstances purely 



