120 
SEED. 
each hair has other little hairs arranged along its sides, like the 
beards on a feather. In this figure (46.)y represents the sessile 
Fig. 46. 
egret ; a, the capillary, or hair-like egret ; b the plumose or 
feathery egret ; c and d show the style remaining, and forming 
a train as in the virgin’s bower and geam j e, a wing as may 
be seen in the fir. 
General Remarks upon Seeds. 
The number of seeds in different plants is variable ; some 
have but one, some have turn, which is the case with the Um- 
belliferous plants ; some have four, as in the rough leaved plants ; 
and in the order Gymnospermia of the class Didynamia, there 
are four lying naked in each calyx. The number varies from 
these to thousands. A stalk of indian corn is said to have pro- 
duced in one season two thousand seeds. A sunflower four 
thousand. A capsule of the poppy has been found to contain 
eight thousand seeds. It has been calculated that a single this- 
tle seed will produce at the first crop, twenty four thousand, 
and at the second crop, at this rate, five hundred and seventy 
six millions. In the same species of plants the number of seeds 
is often found to vary. The apple, and many others might be 
given as examples. 
Seeds also vary in size, and have been divided into four kinds; 
large , from the size of a walnut, to that of the cocoa nut ; mid- 
dle size, neither larger than a hazle nut, nor smaller than a mil- 
let seed ; small, between the size of the seeds of a poppy and a 
bell flower; minute, like dust or powder, as in the ferns and 
mosses. 
When a pericarp separates itself from the parent plant, or 
when the valves of the fruit open, this is not the effect of vital 
activity, but a proof that the fruit has ceased to vegetate. The 
fruit, like the leaves, at the end of autumn, losing the vital prin- 
ciple, is submitted to the laws which govern inorganized matter. 
The period in which the seeds arrive at maturity, marks the 
Number of seed variable — Size variable — Separation of the pericarp 
from the plant — 
