186 
ORGANOGRAPHY. 
BOOK I, 
called naked seeds^ such as those of Umbelliferac, Labiatae, 
and Boragineae, and the grain of corn ; but, now that atten- 
tion has been paid to the gradual development of organs, 
such errors have been corrected. In cases where a trace of 
the style cannot be discovered, anatomy will generally show 
whether a minute body is a seed or fruit, by the presence, in 
the latter case, of two separable and obviously organically 
distinct coatings to the nucleus of the seed; but in other 
cases, where the pericarp and the integuments of the seeds 
are combined in a single covering, and where no trace of 
style remains, as sometimes happens, nothing can be deter- 
mined as to the exact nature of a given body without follow- 
ing it back in its growth to its young state. This, however, 
may be stated, that naked seeds, properly so called, are not 
known to exist in more than three or four orders in the 
whole vegetable kingdom ; viz. in Coniferae and Cycadea?, 
where the ovules also are naked, and in Peliosanthes Teta 
and Leontice, in which the ovules, originally enclosed in an 
ovary, rupture it at an early period after fertilisation, and 
subsequently continue naked until they become seeds. 
Such being the case, it follows that all the laws of structure 
which exist in the ovary are equally to be expected in the 
fruit ; and this fact renders a repetition in this place of the 
general laws of formation unnecessary. Nevertheless, as, in 
the course of the advance of the ovary to maturity, many 
changes often occur which contribute to conceal the real 
structure of the fruit, it is in all cases advisable, and in many 
absolutely necessary, to examine the ovary, in order to be 
certain of the exact construction of the fruit itself. These 
changes are caused by the abortion, non-development, obli- 
teration, addition, or union of parts. Thus the three-celled 
six-ovuled ovary of the oak and the hazel becomes, by the 
non-development of two cells and five ovules, a fruit with one 
seed; the three-celled ovary of the cocoa-nut is converted 
into a one-celled fruit by the obliteration of two cells and their 
ovules ; and the two-celled ovary of some Pedalineae becomes 
many-celled by a division and elongation of the placentae. 
In a very early state the ovary of the Lychnis and of the 
primrose consists of five cells, each with a placenta having a 
