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ductive bodies are never found together on the same individual, 

 but some individuals produce one kind of fruit, some the other 

 kind. One sort is called a spore, the other a tetraspore, be- 

 cause it divides at maturity into four parts or sporules. 



" It is not reasonable to regard both these bodies as true 

 seeds, because they are formed in very different manners, and 

 because it is against the analogy of the rest of the vegetable 

 kingdom to admit a double seminal system. Other plants have 

 but owe kind of seed proper to each species. But other plants 

 grow either from seeds, properly so called, or from bulbs or 

 buds formed in the axils of their leaves, or out of some part of 

 their cellular system. We may therefore admit a similar ex- 

 planation of the double fructification of Rhodosperms, namely, 

 that one of their fruits is the analogue of a seed, the other of 

 a bud ; and such is the usual explanation of the difficulty. 

 But there vpill still remain unanswered the question, — which 

 sort of fruit is the seed, and which is the bud ? In flowering 

 plants nothing would be more easy than to answer such a 

 query, for we know that seeds are only formed through the 

 action of stamens and pistils in special assemblages of organs, 

 called flowers. But among cryptogamic plants the floral or- 

 gans appear in a state so much reduced, or they are so much 

 confounded with organs of nutrition, that it is often difiicult 

 to decide upon the true nature of the several parts. And in 

 the present case (of the Rhodosperms) botanists have, at diffe- 

 rent times, held opposite opinions on the respective value of 

 the spore and the tetraspore. 



" Formerly the spore was regarded as the true seed (and 

 called "primary fruit"), and the tetraspore asapropagulum or 

 bud (and called " secondary fruit"). M. Decaisne originated an 

 opposite hypothesis, alleging that the tetraspore was the true 

 analogue of a seed, and attributing very inferior importance to 

 the spore, denying its reproductive nature in some cases alto- 

 gether, and in none admitting it to rank higher than a bud or 



