ON THE STEUCTURE AND GROWTH OF SEEDS. 5 



or two perfected ; while the accumulation of juices pre- Many seeds 



pared, and even formed into albumen, for the others, ^P* ""but'^re^are 



pears again to be dissolved into liquid nourishment for the juices for the 



favoured embryo. A beautiful provision of Nature: for, if ° ^"* 



those that did not arrive at maturity were to decay, so very 



much is the rot in vegetables liable to spread, few probably 



would perfect their seeds ; whereas of the number that grow 



most of them serve as a reservoir of juices for the use of 



the most healthy of those the seed vessel contains. It is 



not difficult by long habit (when there are few) to discover 



their number by the protuberance of the outward cuticle : 



yet after this they disappear, and leave little or no vestige 



but a skin, if that. This is mostly however to be found in 



the seed vessels of trees, the glandiferes, nuciferes, &c., 



where the juices are easily communicated from one to the 



other. 



In all seeds there never is but one embryo to be found in 

 one kernel. The vessels in both halves should be traced 

 with care to their origin, the impregnating vessel to its in- 

 terior, the nourishing vessels to the exterior of the seed, 

 vessel, which suggests (what is afterward proYed) that the The seeds re- 

 latter receives much addition to its iuices from the dews and ^^'^^ P^"^* °^ 



•' their nutriment 



t?ajt)o«r5 around. from without. 



I must now mention what no one has before noticed, Part mistaken 

 but which is, I am persuaded, in part, the cause of the ^""^ *^^ '*^^"^^®* 

 mistakes respecting the radicle, and the time of its appear- 

 ing to grow in the seed. When the seed is taken in the 

 seed vessel it shows a string (see c, a, a, a, figs. 1 and 2) 

 running often, before it reaches the corculum of the seed, 

 nearly round, and at a distance from the outward cover. 

 Now this string, I am persuaded, has been taken for the 

 radicle ; or how could any botanist describe the radicle as 

 preceding the cotyledons, when often two months intervene 

 between them, the latter always shooting first? I will be 

 bold to say, that the radicle of no seed ever did grow, till 

 the fast epoch, or its return into the earth. This string, 

 which is the impregnating vessel, cannot enter into the 

 seed, except at the corculum: it must therefore 5/7efc// in 

 length, till it reaches this part, as the seed is not yet fixed, 

 but swims and moves in a clear fluid. It may be observed 



in 



