530 Piinciples ()f Gardening 



of the medullary point lies the core, or rudiment, of the bud, in 

 the middle of all the bud leaves ; it is the most important part 

 of the bud, from which all the new growths are formed. Ac- 

 cording to this, the bud consists in an extension of the axis of 

 the parent plant, surrounded by the leafy appendages which 

 conceal it, and possesses at the base of these the foundation for 

 new buds, and in their core the property of lengthening the axis 

 into a branch. The fruit of every single flower is formed exactly 

 like the bud, and is the representative of the terminal bud of 

 the blossom bough ; while the flower itself, the centre of which 

 it occupies, must be considered as the termination of the axis of 

 the blossom bough. The metamorphosed bundle of leaves 

 which form the flower thus stand close over each other, and are 

 developed together with the organs of fructification. As soon, 

 however, after fructification has taken place, as the fruit begins 

 to expand, the other parts of the blossom lose their import- 

 ance, and mostly fall off". In the same manner as the axil of 

 the branch passes over into the terminal bud, the fruit is 

 formed by a greater or less lengthening of the axis of the flower, 

 which bears the ovula or germ, and is covered with leafy ap- 

 pendages. Link was the first who decidedly contradicted the 

 ideas formerly entertained of the formation of fruit, and recog- 

 nised the axillary formation as the most important part of all; 

 Schleiden, also, not a great while since, published a similar view, 

 the first principles of which, he, as well as myself, owes to my 

 esteemed instructor Bartling. From that time I have been con- 

 stantly occupied with this subject ; and, in order to make the 

 above more intelligible, I will briefly arrange the principal 

 forms of fructification for our further contemplation. 



The fruit-axis consists of the elongation of the pith of the 

 flower stalk, and the bundle of fibres forming the medullary 

 envelope (Markscheide). The most simple mode of fructifi- 

 cation is found in the genus Taxus. The ovula, or germ, is 

 seated at the point of the axis, and has its origin in the trans- 

 formation of the core of the bud. The fruit-case (Fruchthlille) 

 and the bud-case (Eihlille) are, in this form, so slightly distin- 

 guished, that it is doubtful whether the single covering that con- 

 tains the pip, or nut, and is open at the top, is to be considered 

 the bud-cover(Eihulle),or the fruit-cover (Fruchthiille): the calyx 

 of the flower is also wanting; so that the female flower has exactly 

 the form of a bud, the primitive form of which bud remains un- 

 developed in the axis of the bud-leaves, but the core of which, 

 instead of making a new shoot, is transformed into a germ, and, 

 by fructification, becomes a seed. In a similar manner, but on a 

 hiirher scale of orijanisation, the fruit of the t/rticeaj are formed: 

 the female flowers of which are surrounded with an imperfect 

 calyx, but possess a perfect ovula and fruit envelope (Ei- und 



