252 BIOLOGY. 



1333. They are devoid of the distinction of testa and 

 embryo, because, on account of the deficiency of genuine 

 leaf-formation, they are none other than the first. For 

 the embryo is only a small leaf. They therefore include 

 only albumen or germinal powder, as it is correctly 

 named. 



1334. Here belong not merely fungi, fuci, lichens and 

 mosses, but also the ferns, as being those which have 

 only cells or squamoid leaves. For the frond with the 

 spiral vessels does not rank in the category of leaf, but 

 of stalk. 



FRUIT. 



1335. The fruit is the coalescence or blending of the 

 three parts of the flower, or the seed, ovarium and corolla. 

 In the flower the individual perfection of every part of 

 the trunk was completely attained ; the leaves being sepa- 

 rated quite freely from the stalk became corolla; the 

 stalk separated from the leaves and root became pistil ; 

 lastly, the root separated from all, became the seed. In 

 this manner indeed each organ attained its ratio of per- 

 fection ; the perfection, however, of the Whole does not 

 alone consist in the perfection of the several parts for 

 themselves, but in the union or combination of these 

 individual perfections. The vegetable trunk, as being a 

 Partial, has been represented in the parts of the flower, 

 but as a Whole, in the fruit. 



1336. The fruit is therefore the last and most perfect 

 consummation of the plant, or the whole vegetable trunk 

 repeated as unity. 



1337. In the fruit not merely the sum of all vegetable 

 forms is united, but also that of all vegetable matters. It 

 is the whole vegetable body repeated mathematically, 

 physically and chemically. 



1338. The fruit therefore is also that part of the plant 

 in which all vegetable bodies have been concentrated into 

 flesh. Now, as the highest vegetable bodies pass over 

 into the next, and consequently into the animal, kingdom, 

 and are therefore palatable as food, so is the fruit also 



