PHANEKOGAMIA : FLOWERS. 427 



Finally, it is to be mentioned, in some plants the endostome (as 

 in Lemnd), in others both the exostome and endostome (as in Pistia), 

 in others, again, the whole of the integuments of the seed, 

 which had previously formed a peculiar circular fold (as in Maranta 

 and the Commelinacece), and, lastly, in Canna, the whole of the inte- 

 guments over a small portion of the periphery of the seed-bud, 

 which become hardened by the thickening of these cells, indepen- 

 dently of all the rest, and easily separable from them, lie as an 

 operculum on the radical end of the embryo, and so are termed the 

 operculum or embryotega. 



I must, alas ! again repeat here, what impresses itself upon the pene- 

 trating inquirer at every step in Botany, that almost all the existing 

 material, from the total want of scientific principles, scarcely carries us 

 beyond the very beginning of science. Scarcely anything can be used, 

 almost every thing is yet to be done, almost every investigation must be 

 recommenced from the very beginning, under an improved method. A 

 greater confusion than that which prevails in the theory of the seed- 

 coats is scarcely conceivable. The most heterogeneous things are thrown 

 together under one name, thoroughly identical ones placed in totally dif- 

 ferent classes of organs ; and there is nothing for it, if we would not 

 make still greater confusion, but to cut the thread altogether and begin 

 over again. The epidermis of the seed, as I have delineated it, is de- 

 scribed sometimes as testa in the Leguminosce and Drosera, sometimes 

 as arillus ; seed-membranes are introduced, as in Canna and the Com- 

 positce, where no true integuments exist. Appendages of the raphe, 

 thickened micropyle, thickening of the funiculus, true arilli, run gaily 

 through one another as caruncula, strophiolus, arillus, and under a 

 dozen other names ; every one has new names in readiness. To observe 

 how the things are formed, what their import is in the plant, few do, 

 and most Botanists let the few like Brongniart, Rob. Brown, Mirbel, 

 and others lie on the shelf. One person cannot help in the matter ; he 

 can only complain, and invoke a better spirit to animate Botanists. 



The whole theory has been constructed hitherto solely according to 

 hypotheses, among which especially the view principally established by 

 Gartner, in his otherwise inestimable work (de fructibus et seminibus 

 plantarum), takes the first rank ; a view totally contradicting nature, that 

 the seed must necessarily be covered by two coats. Whence the law is 

 derived, how it is deduced from the nature of the plant and the seed, no 

 one says ; and yet this prejudice is so firmly adhered to, that even after 

 the works of Rob. Brown, Brongniart, and Mirbel had appeared, very 

 talented persons thought they settled a matter very cleverly when they 

 said, one should not be afraid of the periphrasis, for instance, in Viburnum, 

 but had best give : spermodermis incompleta e tunica simplici formata. 

 I think, however, that one should not be afraid to throw away old pre- 

 judices, without any ground in profound investigation of the nature of the 

 plant, but should say simply epispermium simplex* ; or, for instance in 

 Ricinus and Chelidonium, epispermii stratum medium crustaceum, inter- 

 num membranaceum, whereby it at least remains undecided to which 

 integument the layer named belongs, since in Ricinus the brittle (crus- 



The umbilicus itself, i. e. the point of separation, is never especially coloured, and is 

 only otherwise evident by the shining surface of the torn cellular tissue. 

 * I prefer the older name of C. L. Richard. 



