PHYTOPHYSIOLOGY. 275 



of itself. Now, the female produces a fruit, which is 

 synonymous with both principles. 



1406. The semen is the fruit of the male. The male 

 is always pregnant, and that indeed by virtue of his own 

 power. This power is deficient in the female, which does 

 not possess the light in itself, but only the elemental 

 bodies that are ready and susceptible of form. 



1467. The anthers are the male organs, the pollen is 

 the semen. The pistils are the female organs, the seed- 

 granules are properly speaking, the germ. 



1468. The pollen is a most highly differenced, elec-\ 

 trical product ; the seed-granule a wholly indifferent, \ 

 and tranquil mucous mass. The pollen falls upon the 

 stigma of the pistil, and irradiation has taken place ; the 

 material fruit-capsule gains thereby so much polarity, / 

 that saps enough ascend, in order to develop the germ- / 

 less seed- vesicles. 



1469. It is quite unnecessary for the pollen, with its 

 sap or gas, to be materially conveyed through the style 

 to the seed. It is only requisite for the style to be ex- 

 cited, dualized, electrified, and then it has life enough of 

 its own. But it does not follow, because it is unneces- 

 sary for the sap of the floral dust or pollen to reach the 

 seed-granules, that it cannot or ought not to reach there- 

 unto. In many plants the pollen-tube does actually 

 reach there and penetrate through the micropyle. In 

 many styles it is still held as impossible, for the pollen- 

 tube to penetrate through them to the seeds. The 

 pollen-sap indeed simply evokes on the apex of the seed 

 (upon the summit of the lorical rib, through whose libe- 

 ration the micropyle originates) the vital process, which, 

 without this stimulus, would perish. Thereby a new I 

 cell is secreted, from whence the germ is developed. 



IRRITABILITY MOTION. 



1470. In impregnation the heaven is married to 

 the earth ; for then the spirit descends, and does not 

 esteem itself too highly to become flesh. Impregnation 

 is the highest immaterial action of the plant. 



