ON [,« 



SOME REMAEKABLE DEVIATIONS, &c. 



The principal part of the following paper was read to the 

 Society in March, 1813. It was then withdrawn with a 

 view of rendering it more perfect by additional facts, which 

 I hoped I might be able to collect. Since that time I have 

 not had it in my power to pay much attention to the sub- 

 ject. As, however, the facts formerly stated appear to me 

 of some importance, and are as yet unpublished,. I take the 

 liberty of again submitting them to the Societyj along with 

 a few additional instances of anomalies in the structure of 

 seeds and fruits, hardly less remarkable than those con- 

 tained in the original essay. 



It is, I believe, generally admitted by physiological 

 botanists, that the seeds of plants are never produced abso- 

 lutely naked :— in other words, that the integument through 

 some point or process of which impregnation takes place, 

 cannot properly be considered as part of the seed itself. 



That such a covering, distinct from the seed, really exists, 

 may in most, perhaps in all, cases be satisfactorily shown 

 by a careful examination of the unimpregnated ovarium, to 

 a part only of whose cavity the ovulum will be found to be 

 attached. 



There are, however, many cases where soon after fecun- 

 pation, and more remarkably still in the ripe fruit, this 

 integument acquires so complete and intimate a cohesion [i« 

 with the proper coat of the seed as to be no longer either 

 separable or distinguishable from it. 



But systematic botanists have generally agreed to term a 



