SEED. 
89 
li-uit of the MORUS rubra (red mulberry) ; it is oblong ; 
cftch little drupe surrounded by a succulent pericarp ; 
the nut is one-seeded; 6 represents a detached peri- 
anth, containing a drupeole ; c, drupeole ; d, a nut ; e, 
the same cut transversely ; /, the embryo. 
" I know nothing," says Mirbel, " more deserving our 
attention than the study of these natural productions 
(fruits), so simple and yet so varied. When we have 
once seized the first links of a beautiful chain of facts, 
we ma}'^ go on from one discovery to another, astonished that we have so long beec 
ignorant of the admirable industry of nature."* 
LECTUEE XY. 
THE SEED. SYNOPSIS OF THE EXTEENAL OEGAJSTS OF PLANTS. 
98. The seed may be considered as that link m the chain of vegetable existence 
which connects the old and new plant ; were this destroyed, were nature to fail iu 
her operation of perfecting the seed, what a change would the earth soon exhibit I 
One year would sweep away the whole tribe of annual plants ; beautiful flowers, 
medicinal herbs, and our most important grains for the sustenance of man and 
beast, would vanish forever. Another year would take from us many of our most 
useful garden vegetables, and greatly reduce the number of our ornamen .?\ plants. 
Year after year the perennials would vanish, until the earth would prese *.t but one 
vast scene of vegetable ruin. The ancient pines and venerable oaks, ins aad of the 
Bniiling aspect of ever-renovating nature which they now witness, would, for a time, 
stand alone in solitary grandeur, the mournful remains of a once beauti -ul and fer 
tile world ! And why are we never filled with alarm, lest the provisioi-s of nature 
should fail? It is because we know that a Being, unchangeable in parpose, and 
omnipotent in means, directs the course of physical events, and He had promised, 
that while the earth remaineth, " seed-time and harvest shall not cease." 
We have seen, in the progress of our inquiries, that while the present plant is 
diffusing around it beauty and fragrance, and ministering to the necessities and 
luxuries of man, the watchful care of that Being who never " slumbers nor sleeps," 
is, by a slow but certain progress, perfectuig that part which is destined to continue 
tlie species, and which " is the sole end and aim of all the organs of fructification." -j- 
99. The seed is the ovule ^ or vegetable egg^ in a mature state ; 
it differs from a full-grown ovule by containing within its in- 
tegument an embryo, or organized body, the complete rudiment 
of a new plant, similar to that from v/hich it received its ex- 
istence. The ovary^ or the case which contains the ovules, is 
formed from the folded lamina of the leaf, the contracted apex 
of which forms the style, and an expansion of the same the 
stigma of the pistil. The placenta is the part of the ovary to 
which the ovule is attached ; the connecting stalk is the fvr 
nicle I the point of attachment to the nucleus of the ovule ia 
the chalaza; through the latter organs nourishment is con- 
veyed from the placenta to the ovule. 
* Elemens dc Physiologic Vegetale, page 334, vol. I. t Linna;uB. 
98 Remarks respecting the seed, — 99. Seed, how differing from the ovule ? — Ovary, how formed 1 
-Placi\nta — Funicle — Chalaza. 
