MALPIGHI 157 



the constituent parts of tlie flower and the sexual organs 

 of mammals, identifying the styles with the Fallopian 

 tubes, the ovary with the uterus, &c. 



Double flowers and other monstrous forms are men- 

 tioned, and the transformation of the petals of the 

 Polyanthus into foliage-leaves is figured. 



Development of the Plant-embryo 



We owe to Malpighi the first good account of the 

 development of the seed and embryo. The minuteness 

 of his scrutiny into all visible structures is shown by his 

 many figures of the embryo-sac, its cellular contents 

 (endosperm), and the attached " vessel " (empty part 

 of embryo-sac).-' There is a plate of the embryo of the 

 walnut in various stages of development which is sur- 

 prisingly good. He also figures and describes the seed- 

 lings of cucumber, kidney bean, common bean, pea, 

 wheat, and millet. In the Opera Posthuma we find 

 careful accounts of the germination of a bean, a 

 laurel and the date-palm. The figures are such as 

 an intelligent student, who chose to dispense with the 

 help of books, might make in a modern biological 

 laboratory. I select the description of the seedling 

 date-palm ^ as an example of his treatment. He begins 

 with a notice of the hard endosperm, as we should now 

 call it, which occupies most of the kernel ; this he calls 

 the placenta, and says that it plays the part of the 

 cotyledon of wheat or oat ; it is composed, he says, of 

 rows of minute cells, which enclose a small chamber for 

 the embryo (plantula). When the seed is planted in 

 the earth, the endosperm softens ; the embryo enlarges 

 and begins to protrude. A long whitish stalk, sur- 

 mounted by a rounded knob, descends into the soil. 



1 PI. XXXVII. 2 Opera Posthuma, pp. 72-5, PI. VII-IX. 



