CHAP. II. 
SEED. 
205 
14. Of the Seed. 
171 172 173 174 175 176 
182 185 186 
As the fruit is the ovary arrived at maturity, and is there- 
fore subject to the same laws of structure as the latter; so is 
the seed the ovule in its most perfect and finally organised 
state, and constructed upon exactly the same plan as the 
ovule. But as the fruit, nevertheless, often differs from the 
ovary in the suppression, or addition, or modification of certain 
portions, so is the seed occasionally altered from the precise 
structure of the ovule, in consequence of changes of like 
nature. 
The seed is a body enclosed in a pericarp, is clothed with 
its own integuments, and contains the rudiment of a future 
plant. It is the point of development at which vegetation 
stops, and beyond which no increase, in the same direction 
with itself, can take place. In a young state it has already 
been spoken of under the name of ovule; to which I also 
refer for all that relates to the insertion of seeds. 
That side of a seed which is most nearly parallel with the 
axis of a compound fruit, or the ventral suture or sutural 
line of a simple fruit, is called the face, and the opposite side 
the hack. In a compound fruit with parietal placentae, the 
placenta is to be considered as the axis with respect to the 
seed ; and that part of the seed which is most nearly parallel 
with the placenta, as the face. Where the raphe is visible, 
the face is indicated by that. 
