OF PLANTS. 99 



the same portion of the stem which delighted our palate in 

 the nearly allied Strawberry, is here represented by the 

 little white, spongy cone ; that in the Apple we eat a 

 part of the flower-stalk ; in the Cherry, part of a leaf-, 

 and that in the Nut and Almond we devour a whole 

 diminutive plant, root, stem, leaves, and buds. 



But we must here once more recall to mind, what has 

 already been mentioned at the outset of our examination 

 of the typical plant: namely, that by no means all the 

 individual parts and forms described in the typical plant 

 make their appearance in every plant, nay, even in every 

 plant having a stem. Among those last, indeed, are found 

 a large number with a much more simple structure and, 

 therefore, in order to proceed with the unfolding of the 

 series of steps, we are again obliged to recur to the repro- 

 duction of plants. 



It will be remembered from a former Lecture, that the 

 general process of the multiplication of all- plants consists 

 of the formation of definite reproductive cells, the detach- 

 ment of these from the place where they were produced, 

 and their development into new plants ; but that an 

 essential distinction was founded on the circumstances 

 under which the development takes place : whether the 

 reproductive cell can at once unfold itself into a new 

 plant in water or on the earth, or must acquire a certain 

 degree of maturity within a peculiar organ of the plant, 

 the so-called seed-bud. To the plants of the former kind, 

 which are called Cryptogamous, or asexual, belong a 

 considerable number of the stem-plants. I will here 

 especially cite only the Liver-worts and Mosses, the 

 Lycopodiacece or Club-mosses, the Ferns, and the Equi- 

 seta or Horsetails. In all these groups can be distin- 

 guished a distinct stem with leaves, but a peculiar series 



7 * 



