CS THE STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF SEEDS. jg] 



I received any description of them ; but the cotton resem- 

 bles silk, and is more beautiful than that the silk worm 

 spins. It is said to grow also in Bantam, and to be much 

 valued. To complete the account of" the corculum and of 

 this fifth class I shall only mention, that it has from 14 to 

 18 teats, with very large nourishing vessels: the long coty- 

 ledons almost wholly fill the seeds in general; and it ap- 

 pears to me an additional proof, that they contrive to grow 

 as long as their room and time will admit; for seldom can Number of co. 

 theie be found seeds showing a regular number of cotyle- tyledons never 

 dons: the loiiger they remain in the seed vessels, the more 

 there are; and in this last class, the longer they are. 



1 shall uovv give a few hints to those botanists that wish Hints on dis, 

 to dissect their own plants, and to judge for themselves, meeting plants. 

 l^atience and habit are every thing: perhaps in no particu- 

 lar does practice repay so amply as in this. The hand 

 grows more delicate in the touch ; and the eye so very much 

 improves in sight, that what at first cannot be seen dis- 

 tinctly, with a good magniHer, will soon become plain to 

 the naked eye. The habit of dissecting with the mouth like- 

 wise ail botanists should endeavour to learn, for no instiu- 

 ment can act like it, or so thoroughly divest the seed of 

 all superfluous parts, and prepare it for the micrv^scope. 



As to the rules for distinguishing these classes, without Rules forxHs- 

 obliging any person to repair to the solar or other powerful tmguishinj; the 

 microscope : the first class is easily known by a small mag- 

 nifier, but the second requires some art. They are gene- 

 rally remarkably small seeds; press them between the nails 

 of your thumb, beginning the pressure at the corculuna 

 end, and the whole embryo will slip oat he^rt and all; you 

 have then only to divide it with a fine lancet. The third 

 class naust not be so tried, but lay it straight on your seed 

 liammer; and pressing a fiat knife on it, pass your lancet 

 between, and it will always divide it exactly as it should 

 do, showing the two principal vessels iii a manner that will 

 teach much, for this class of seeds is one of the best to 

 begin dissection by, as there is no confusion in the arrange- 

 ment of the vessels. They are at such a distance from each 

 other, that it is hardly possible to mistake them. I have 

 tlra^ings of a large size of many of this class,, which are 



of 



