lO ON THE STRUeTURE AND GROWTH OF SEEDS. 



would be the ust of the nourishing vessels, which occupy 

 towards the last epoch of the seed so li.rge a portion of it, as 

 plainly to evince their consequence? Ana what should cause 

 these vessels to remain attached to tht emoryo, but the ac- 

 cidents to which the root is liabl - ? We know indeed, that 

 there is a spot in the seed, which adds to the juices of the 

 nourishing vessels xWdt fweet jiuid requisite to the support 

 of the young plant. In these, when mixed together, it re- 

 poses, as in a bath, sucking them in at every pore : but 

 this sweet fluid alone would not suffice ; a less cloying liquid 

 is wanting, and this these important vovrishiig vessels pro- 

 duce. Where then is the use of farther support ? The coty- 

 ledons are often extremely full, juicy, and thick ; and (es- 

 pecially in seed leaves) grow extremely fast: consequently, 

 instead of nourishing other pa^ts,, they require for their own 

 growth much support. In firs, where there are so inauy 

 cotyledons (as almost uU the pines have 8; indeed I know 

 but two that have 4 only; though they do nut all come to 

 pevfeftion), it must require a quantity of juices to form 

 them, instead of assisting to form the embryo. Nor could 

 J ever perceive any diminution in the cotyledons, tnough I 

 have watched them with the greatest care. When they 

 Ifuve the seed, they are just as thick as ever, and altered 

 only in their green colour; whereas the spot in the seed, 

 whi^h produces the sweet fluid just mentioned, shows, by 

 the tiii;e the embryo leaves the seed, so large a vacancy, as 

 pli'inly to indicate, that, if the embryo did receive nourish- 

 • ix.iii iVooi the cotyledons, these delicate leaves would pro- 

 itui the charity in a very conspicuous manner, having little 

 o.' ihc-ir proper form after such a reduction. Besides, in 

 those seeds, where it was possible to do it without destroy- 

 ing tlie primordial leaves, which always greatly hurts the 

 eii.bsyo, such as the orange, lemon, &:c., I have repeatedly 

 sevcrt-d the cotyledons the moment they were formed, and it 

 produced no visible efl'ect ; though, if it had in the least 

 lessened the food of the enibryo, so little can it bear such a 

 privation, it would have died directly. 

 Nriirishiiiff There are innumerable convincing proofs of the power of 



' ""'^ j' J the nourishing vessels, and one of the strongest is, that vou 

 r' pioQuccd as ^ n ^ j 



otienascutofi, cannot deprive the seed of them, for they increase as fast as 



you 



