224 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



conical spike, composed of verticillate scales, each of 

 which is a disc with five, six, or seven angles, borne at 

 the centre upon a nearly cylindrical support. From the 

 lower borders of the disc are prolonged downwards 

 from five to seven whitish horns, which open by a longi- 

 tudinal fissure on the inner side, that is to say, nearest 

 the pedicel. There proceed from this slit, at the period 

 of maturity, globules which, received upon paper and 

 examined by the naked eye, present a kind of singular 

 spontaneous motion. 



When placed under the microscope, we perceive that 

 each globule is formed: — 1st, of a green central body, 

 globular and compact ; 2d, of two laminae, dilated at 

 their two extremities into small club-shaped bodies, 

 placed crossways at the middle, at the base of a green 

 body, and rolled spirally around it ; these two laminae, 

 or four half-ones, are covered, especially at their swollen 

 extremities, with small red or browu corpuscules. They 

 are endowed with a very decided hygroscopic motion ; 

 they are rolled around the green body when moist, un- 

 rolled when they are ^dry, and evidently seem to serve 

 for the purpose of dispersing the green bodies out of the 

 horns which enclose them. What is the nature of these 

 different organs ? 



Hedwig thinks that the green globule is an ovary, and 

 that the elastic laminaa are stamens, the pollen of which 

 is represented by the powder which adheres to their 

 surface. That the green globule is a true pistil, is what 

 Hedwig appears to affirm, asserting that in its young 

 state it presents a small point, which afterwards disap- 

 pears, and which he takes for the stigma. But is this 

 ovary furnished with a cavity containing several seeds, 

 as he appears to believe ? Agarclh and Vaucher invali- 

 date this opinion by the following observation : they 

 have seen that if these globules be plunged into water, 



