PHANEROOAMIA: FLOWERS. 385 



cellular tissue, covered with epithelium ; and only when it occurs 

 naked (as in the Conffera), of tough, porous, woody cells, clothed 

 with epidermis. According to its form, it is traversed by one or 

 more vascular bundles, like a simply-formed axis ; and these 

 usually give off as many side branches as there are seed-buds 

 present ; the seed-buds may be destitute of vascular bundles, as is 

 the case in the Orchidacece, &c. Sometimes the internal portion 

 consists of very lax, spongy, cellular tissue, with large intercellular 

 spaces ; as in some Cruciferce, Capsella, &c. 



I will here add some few observations, and in these take the sections 

 given in the paragraphs separately. 



Obs. 1. Robert Brown had already shown incontestibly, from the 

 structure of the seed-buds, that the Conifer & and Cycadacece have naked 

 seed-buds. The investigation of development, in which an integument 

 is very easily distinguished from a germen, confirmed this truth. But 

 this great observer had not gone beyond this, and therefore took the 

 certainly leaflike scale for an open carpel the more readily, that at that 

 time the view was universally received that seed-buds were formed on 

 the borders of foliar organs. But so soon as the history of develop- 

 ment had shown beyond doubt that, at least in a great number of 

 plants, the seed-buds cannot have their origin from a foliar organ, but are 

 borne immediately by the axis*, this old prejudice lost all value; and 

 the question now arose for every single group of plants : Is the part 

 which bears the seed-bud an axial or a foliar organ ? Whence shall 

 we now take the ground of distinction ? The following expresses the 

 train of thought : 1. In the regular course of vegetation a normal bud 

 never arises according to law at a definite place on a leaf: when buds 

 arise according to law at definite places, the base is always an axis. All 

 cases which are brought forward in opposition to this are occurrences 

 which happen under conditions foreign to the normal vegetation of the 

 plant, but on this alone may we build any theory. 2. Throughout the 

 whole vegetable kingdom no simple leaf is ever formed in the axil of 

 another leaf; that which arises in an axil is always an axial organ with 

 more or less perfect leaves. 3. Leaf and axis cannot in any way be 

 distinguished by external form, but only and solely by the process of 

 development ; therefore, as to the foliar or axial nature of a doubtful 

 organ, the only means of decision, besides the 1st and 2nd analogies just 

 mentioned, is the history of development ; but this latter gives the safest 

 conclusion. 



Now, we find in Abies that in the axil of a foliar organ exists 

 another organ, which is formed exactly like an axial organ, and subse- 

 quently has buds (seed-buds) developed upon it. This organ is conse- 

 quently not a carpel but a free spermophore. Having obtained this 

 result with certainty, we may now judge with greater confidence in the 

 other Coniferce and Cycadacece. Accordingly, the female flower of Cycas 

 and Abies are only distinguished by the fact, that in the former the 

 spermophore bears several unreversed seed-buds. Here it is pre-sup- 

 posed that it also arises from the axil of a leaf, which, unfortunately, 

 has not been noticed by any botanist who has had the opportunity. 



* Of these, with easily traceable development, may be given Taxus and Viscum, from 

 which we may venture to assert a similar origin of the seed-bud in Ephedra, Podocarpus, 

 Dacrydium, and in the rest of the LaranthaceeB. 



c c 



