IMPREGNATION — OVULE — SEED. 
67 
pollen tube does not always exactly bit upon the opening of 
the ovule ; thus it is seen at the edge of the micropyle in fig. 6, 
in an ovary of Matthiola annua. The manner in which the 
pollen tubes penetrate through the cellular tissue of the duct 
of the style is represented in fig. 6, from Nicotiana tdbacum. 
They take the shortest road to get from the cellular tissue 
into the cavity of the capsule ; but no entering into an ovule 
could be perceived. 
The Germination of the Orchidece I have attentively ob- 
served in Angr cecum maculatum and Goody era procera, and 
it has been represented in the Icon. Anat. Bot. part ii. (ISdO), 
t. 7. That which I have seen is so different from the germination 
of all other Monocotyledons, and corresponds so exactly with 
the germination of the (bulbilli) bulbous buds which are found 
on many Liliacece, that I hold the seed of Orchidece to be 
a bulbillus. It is well known, that the seeds of many of the 
species of Pancratium are converted into bulbilli, which, 
though not the same, is certainly a similar occurrence. For 
the sake of comparison, I have given, in the sixth table, an 
analysis of a bulbillus of Lilium hulhiferum. I had already 
kept the delineations of Angrcecum for some time, which 
M. Schmidt had executed with his usual ability and exactness, 
but thought, however, that it was an accidental change of the 
seed, until I had an opportunity, not only of observing very 
accurately the germination in Goody era, but also of observing 
that no contradictory circumstance is perceptible in the Or- 
chidece generally, which are already further advanced in the 
process of germination. The seed of Angrcecum first exhibits 
itself with two points (fig. 1) ; from which, as subsequently 
seen, the stem and a small root develop themselves (fig. 2). 
On cutting through the seed, when in that state, longitudinally, 
a bundle of spiroids will be found in the centre of the cellular 
tissue, which occupies the whole seed (fig. 3). On cutting 
through the seed, bulbillus, or whatever one pleases to term 
it, after the germination, we find that it is but little changed, a 
bundle of spiroids is seen going laterally into the root (fig. 4), 
Goody era is similar. The seed, after it has commenced to 
swell and to germinate (fig. 8), has its exterior shape in the 
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