The Sex and Generative Organs of Plants, 



theless remark that this process, this many-membered play 

 of the corporeal form^ this drama so rich in different acts 

 and transformations^ is under the dominion of a power inscru- 

 table to us. From the first production of the infinitely 

 small embryo in the seed of an acorn, till the period when 

 after hundreds of years it stands before us in the gloom 

 of the forest, and its gigantic proportions inspire us with 

 awe, its life, and the life of every vegetable is ruled and 

 directed by a forming mind: and this secret power meets 

 us every where in the vegetable kingdom. It is in action, 

 from its beginning to its end. We acknowledge that here a 

 sublime riddle lies before us, and with reverential awe we 

 draw ourselves back from it, and admire. 



K now we are to reduce this whole process of reproduction 

 to its simplest expression, it appears to be the reciprocal 

 action on each other of two peculiarly endowed cells. The 

 cell of the ovule and that of the pollen tube, or extended 

 inner cellular membrane of the pollen granule. The con- 

 tents of the latter, the fovilla, that exceedingly fine granular 

 mass surrounded with moisture, play here very much the 

 same part as the so-called cellular nuclei do, in the pro- 

 cess of growth. That is, a new cell is formed, (which must 

 be admitted, as being the result of the latest investigation), 

 in this way, that one of the small agglomerate mucus-like 

 granules or little balls, the so-called cytoblast, enlarges 

 itself, and becomes a new cell. Thus the production of 

 a new cell falls within the definition of a bud. Or in other 

 cases, several of these little granules appear simultan- 

 eouly to expand themselves into cells, and in such a case, 

 their development from an originally simple nucleus may 

 be compared to a separation and division into several parts. 

 The organic elements of plants, by which these changes in 

 growth and increase of substance are produced, are either 

 themselves surrounded by a cell, which in the progress of 

 development is absorbed by the part which grows after it, 



