16 
III. 
On the Seeds o* Flowering Plants. 
By T. H. Yabbicom, C.E, 
Read at the General Meeting of the Society, Feb. 3rd, 1870. 
The author introduced the subject by noticing the general structure of 
the inflorescence, and describing the office of each part in the production 
of the seed, the form of the ovary and distribution of the ovules in 
different plants being particularly noticed ; and then continued :— 
On taking a bud of the Fuschia as soon as it appears among the upper 
leaves, when the whole organ does not exceed one -sixteenth of an inch in 
length, and making a cross section of the ovary, there appears on the out- 
side a layer of compressed cells forming the exterior cuticle, and corres- 
ponding to the upper cuticle of the leaf ; within it is a cellular mass 
occupying the whole of the space between it and the loculi, answering to 
the parenchyma ; and lining the loculi another layer of cells occupying a 
similar position as regards the lower cuticle of the leaf. The septa are 
four in number, the edges of the carpels being so curled on themselves, 
forming the placenta, that they resemble in outline the capital of an Ionic 
column, and the concave side is connected with the centre of the cellular 
mass by a tube which serves to convey the sap to the ovules. In each 
loculus appear four ovules of a pear shape, with a dark nucleus. 
As the ovary assumes more definite proportions, but still long before 
the expansion of the flower, a cross section shows the walls of the loculi 
to be more regular in outline, and the ovules in the interior of more delicate 
form, Subsequent examination shows the substance of the ovules to 
have become more dense, until at the period of the bursting of the petals 
the loculi are so enlarged, that they are only separated from each other by 
a thin septum or membrane ; the ovules having the shape and being about 
half the size of the perfect seed. As no pollen has reached the head of 
the pistil up to this point, it is evident that the growth of the ovules is so 
far effected independently of the impregnation of the ovary. At this period 
the outside coating of the ovary is a cellular mass confined between an 
exterior and interior cuticle. The central column is connected with this 
by four septa, which were formerly the walls of the loculi, and the ovules 
are arranged in circle, between the outside coating and the central column. 
If at this period the stigma be cut off before any pollen can have reached it, 
it follows that no fertilization can take place, yet the ovary continues to 
increase in size very considerably some days after the flower has withered 
and fallen, until it ripens and falls itself. It is then very much distended, 
