76 ON VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 



It is upon the arrangement of the stamens and 

 pistils, that Linnaeus has principally formed his 

 system of classification; the particulars of which 

 our time will not permit us to illustrate upon the 

 present occasion. It will sufficient to observe, 

 that the pistil (at its base) is the organ which con- 

 tains the rudiments of the fruit and future seed; 

 but which seldom acquires a re-productive pro- 

 perty, without the influence of the dust contained 

 in the anther of the stamen; and which being 

 dropped, by the bursting of the globules, on the 

 stigma, invests the ovary with the requisite ferti- 

 lizing principle. 



The contents of the ovary being thus Called 

 into action, it gradually expands and enlarges, 

 until by its own natural supplies, it is rendered 

 independent of the other parts of the flower; and 

 these being no longer required, they decay and 

 drop off, and the fruit or pericarp by a progres- 

 sive increase, is ultimately formed into all its 

 magnitude and perfection. Thus we see the 

 ovary, which, in the early stage of growth, ex- 

 hibited only the appearance of a homogeneous 

 mass of pulpy substance, as it advances in size, 

 displays the rude outline of separate organs, until 

 it reaches its full magnitude; when the embryo 

 of a future plant may be discovered in the centre 

 of its own supplies. By this process the pericarp, 

 in a diversity of shapes and forms, is rendered 

 perfect in all its several parts; and as the seed, 



