FORMATION OF SEEDS. 
the hollow of the stems. It is at once a most beautiful con- 
trivance, and an admirable piece of mechanism, without which 
the roots would be ruined before the return of the following 
spring : The stem, when decayed, appears like a double cane, 
from the bark and pith having all melted away between each , 
these are often filled with watef*which, without the precaution 
of the screw, would spread the rot to the middle of the root , it 
is a double screw, one within the other, which finishes at the 
beginning of the root, and thoroughly protects it from rot and 
moisture, it breaks away when the new shoot is going to com- 
mence, which never begins at the same place. 
I am. Sir, 
Your obliged Servant, 
AGNES IBBETSON. 
P'ig. 3 . Plate II. A wood vessel taken from an herbaceous 
plant, shewing the flowers as they pass up to the top of the plant : 
AA the spiral which keeps the plant distended, that pressure 
may .not hurt the flowers in the interior. 
Fig. 2. An alburnum vessel j the same in both trees and 
herbaceous plants, conveying the seeds from the root to the top 
of the plant or to those fibrous stems which bear the flowers still 
in their aggregate state, into which -they enter, lodging them 
in each separate flower. BB The seed are always arranged on 
the line as they are in the different seed vessels j but in far 
greater quantities than ever come to maturity. F The alburnum 
vessel closed. 
Fig. 3. A double screw which separates the old stem from 
the herbaceous root, prevents the latter from being decayed and 
destroyed. 
Fig. 4 . The female flower of the larch ; showing the manner 
in which, after mounting the alburnum vessels, the seeds are col- 
lected at the bottom of this part, and then dividing, and running 
again into the alburnum, mount to each separate bud and these 
enter the seed vessel. Fig. 6. One seed. 
Fig. 5. Manner in which the seeds enter the seed vessels in 
the arum, CC seed vessels DD seeds, 
' ' 
A Memoir 
