FORMATION OF SEEDS, £3 
of life. The vital part of a tree is that cylinder of vessels, 
which lies between the wood and the pith. This is the most The line of life 
important set of vessels in a plant, is that which in the alburnum the most im - 
ties the seeds together, and which former authors have called p0 ‘ tailt v(s ^ 
by the name of the impregnating duct, when appearing in 
the seed . It is always the source from which proceeds every 
important part of a plant, seeds, luds , and radicles. When the 
flower is first engendered next the pith, it is by means of a knot 
on this line, nearest to where it is to appear on the stem. A 
quantity of alburnum is then formed round it, the knot is 
broken, a bud shoots at each end, and the wood is prepared 
from within the plant, for the exit of the buds, by raising some 
vessels, and depressing others, and thus forming a covered way 
in the wood, through which they pass across this apparently Ruds passing 
hard and close matter, till they reach the cradle, already formed tlie 
in the bark for their reception, being that screw before de- 
scribed. It is scarcely possible to conceive a more beautiful and 
wonderful process, or one more easily comprehended. It re- 
quires only stripping off" the rind and bark from any branch of a 
tree, from February to May, and loads of buds will present 
themselves. How it could escape the observation of botanists 
to this time, appears to me to be an enigma. When all this is 
completed, and the bud is lodged in the screw, it there remains 
till the general flow of the sap brings with it the seeds, when it 
has in its liquid state deposited them in the various buds, then 
by degrees, having cleared itself of them, it coagulates, and be- 
comes a jelly. In this state it remains ail the winter, and when Remains all 
spring approaches, the flowers, which were now aggregated and the winter. 
en masse, separate, and each forms its calyx and flower stalk, 
which it never does, till the seeds have entered the corolla. 
When the flower has expanded, the liquid in the line of life 
dilates, and fills both nectaries, and rises each day, at the Filling the 
greatest heat, to the top of the pistil, and descends again within nectal<ics * 
the tube, when the cold returns, till the pollen is ripe. At last 
the pistil receives the powder, and its juice dissolves it, carrying 
the mixed liquid down the cylinder to the heart of each seed, 
through that very pipe by which the seeds were tied in the 
alburnum. The seed, or rather that drop of jelly that has pro- 
ceeded from the root, that clear and vital drop, which, with the 
string, forms the life of the seed, is now in its first and original 
state ; 
