25 i PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES ON 



hair, or it disappears altogether. However mieroseopists may 

 obscure the question of identity by a number of new names, the great 

 fact remains that the ovule, through all its cellular transformations, 

 eventually develops into a branch, like the axillary bud ! The 

 difference between the two is, as I said, that the ovule is subject 

 to impregnation by pollen. Now, however, we know that even 

 this is not necessary for the development of the ovule. In par- 

 thenogenetic seeds, which do not differ sensibly from other seeds, 

 we get a repetition of the branch, and this does not differ in any 

 appreciable way from that produced by the bud. 



The notion of a difference between the two may have been 

 originally engendered by a difference in position. Then a different 

 name was given to each, and this has stuck to them, not because 

 they are distinct, but because the bud and the seed happened to be 

 borne on parts of the plant which were originally supposed to be 

 fundamentally different. 



The moment we discover that the axillary butl is a branchlet of 

 the leaf-petiole, we must conclude that by contraction it can 

 become a tooth like the stipel of a compound leaf, and that by so 

 doing it occupies the exact homological position of a marginal 

 ovule. So that not only in their anatomical position are the ovule 

 and the bud the same thing, but also in the result they give after 

 development. 



To sum up, what is the real difference between the seed and the 

 bud apart from their minute anatomy ? 



The seed is producible on the margin,* on the mid-rib, f or on 

 the lamina of the leaf.J 



The seed coats may be regarded as a fusion of bud-scales, open 

 at their apex in the ovide, to admit of the pollen tube, or, as the 

 vagina of an undeveloped leaf. The cotyledons may be regarded 

 as large inner bud-scales, which expand after bursting through the 

 seed coats. They are nursing bud-scales, which have a distinct 

 function. The result is a branch wnth an independent life, and 

 subject or not to variation. 



The bud is producible on the margin, or on the mid-rib (in 

 seaweeds) of the leaf, or almost on any part of the plant, § but 



* In the pea. f In ophrys apifera. % bi uymphaja. 



§ Elsewhere I have discussed the probability of ovules on the lamina 

 beincrthe same as the globular hairs on the surface of the leaf of Chenopodium 

 petiolare. 



