FORMATION OF SEEDS. 
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between bud and bud, for they draw out between each, like u 
telescope, and thus complete by degrees their preparation for 
the following year. The screw appears to be that species of 
formation which Nature adopts on every important occasion, 
in Lola, as I shall show when delineating the herbaceous plants. 
I have now depicted the whole dissection of plants, that do not 
lie down in the winter ; I shall next explain the formation of 
those which do, and which rise each year from the earth. They Formation of 
are so different from trees, that nature appears to have formed the herba- 
them in a contrary mould j since the laboratory of trees is at ceous P iant » 
the bottom of the flower stalk, but in herbaceous plants at the 
lower part of the root. Here not only seeds, but flowers also, are 
composed, and every decoction necessary to their production. 
As the corolla and stamen cases are both formed of the wood, 
no other juices being approximated sufficiently for the purpose. 
The calyx and peduncle are not made till the flower reaches the 
screw or axilla of the leaves, w here the juices of the inner bark 
can attain them, to produce the green pan of the flower; and the 
pollen is formed by the addition of the dew, as in trees. If a 
plant is taken, when only six or eight inches high, (suppose one 
of the pentandria digynia tribe), if cut the length of the stem and 
root, the flowers will be found mounting in large wood vessels, 
formed for the purpose, and passing through the middle of the 
root, and on both sides of the stem, and therefore easily dis- 
tinguished, while the seeds coming even from the stringy roots, stringy roots 
and thence entering the alburnum vessels, (which run through contain the 
the root in various directions,) thus mount to the stem, while 
the flower has, in the mean time, ascended the plant, formed its 
calyx and stalk, and has only to run up the peduncle, to com- 
plete its formation. I know no plant that so admirably shows TIl{? arum 
the seed arranging in the seed vessels, as the arum. If the plant arranging tfie 
is divided longitudinally, root and stem, a very thin slice, and seeds * 
cut exactly even, placed in the solar microscope, and the flowers 
already aggregated, the seeds will be seen mounting the al- 
burnum, and arranging themselves one by one in the cases, and 
if quite fresh , they will continue to do so for nearly an hour 
after they are dug up and dissected ; and it is certainly a most 
beautiful subject for the solar microscope. But what may be 
said to complete and perfect the discovery of the seeds, is the 
dissection of the wheat \ which not only forms the vital part of 
the 
