CHAP. II. 
NAKED SEED. 
219 
by pericarps, as has been shown above, the expression in the 
sense of Linnaeus is obviously incorrect, and is now abandoned. 
Hence it has been inferred that there is no such thing in 
existence as a naked seed ; that is to say, a seed which bears 
on its own integuments the organ of impregnation. To this 
proposition botanists had assented till the year 1825, when 
Brown demonstrated the existence of seeds strictly naked; 
that is to say, from their youngest state destitute of pericarp, 
and receiving impregnation through their integuments without 
the intervention of style or stigma, or any stigmatic apparatus. ^ 
That most learned botanist has demonstrated that seeds of this 
description are uniform in Coniferae and Cycadeae, in which 
no pericarpial covering exists. But we have no knowledge at 
present of such an economy obtaining in other plants, as a 
constant character. It does, however, happen, as the same 
observer has pointed out, that in particular species the ovary 
is ruptured at an early period by the ovules, w^hich thus, when 
ripe, become truly naked seeds : remarkable instances of which 
occur in Ophiopogon spicatus, Leontice thalictroides, and 
Peliosanthes Teta. 
