34 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
at an early stage with little caps, like those of the 
Normandy peasants, with high peaks and long 
lappets,—in one species bearing a remarkable 
resemblance to the extinguisher of a candle,—a 
curious provision for protecting them alike from the 
sunshine and the rain, until the delicate structures 
underneath are matured. When the fruit-stalk 
lengthens and the capsules swell, this hood or cap 
is torn from its support, and carried up on the top 
of the seed-vessel, much in the same way as the 
calyx of the common garden annual, the Esch- 
scholizia or Californian Poppy is borne up on the 
summit of the cone-like petals before they expand. 
When the seed-vessel is riper it falls off altogether, 
and discloses a little lid covering the mouth of the 
capsule, which is also removed at a more advanced’ 
stage of growth. The mouth of the seed-vessel is 
then seen to be fringed all round with a single or 
double row of teeth, which closely fit into each 
other, and completely close up the aperture. It 
is a circumstance worthy of being noticed, that the 
even numbers which prevail in the formation of 
microscopic cells, are also found in these organs, 
the teeth being arranged in each row in the geo- 
metrical progression of 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64, there 
never being by any chance an odd number; thus 
illustrating the general doctrine that a system of 
types runs throughout the whole works of Nature, 
