CHAP. II. 
NAKED SEEDS. 
257 
16. Of Naked Seeds. 
By naked seeds has been understood, by the school of Lin- 
naeus, small seed-like fruit, like that of Labiatae, Boraginaceae, 
Grasses, and Cyperaceae. But as these are distinctly covered 
by pericarps, as has been shown above, the expression in the 
sense of Linnaeus is obviously incorrect, and is now aban- 
doned. 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 integu- 
ments without the intervention of style or stigma, or any 
stigmatic apparatus. That most learned botanist has demon- 
strated that seeds of this description are uniform in Coniferae 
and Cycadaceae, in which no pericarpial covering exists. But 
we have no knowledge at present of such an economy obtain- 
ing in other plants except Gnetaceae, 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, which thus, when ripe, become 
truly naked seeds: remarkable instances of which occur in 
Ophiopogon spicatus, Leontice thalictroides, and Peliosanthes 
Teta. 
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