io8 VEGETABLE STRUCTURE. 
CHAP. XXX. 
Of the Conveyance of the Embryo into the Seed. 
“l^^ATURE provides, for the reception of the Embryo, thus form’d 
in theFaiina, a peculiar cafe, the Seed, which receives it naked, and 
gives the firft means of a limited growth. In the center of the Radhh 
Flower there rifes a flender, long, irregular cyllndrlc body, crowned with 
a fmall rough head. The cylindric body is the young Seed-VefTel, and 
the rough head is the Stigma, which is rough for detaining the globules of 
Farina, and moift to make the paflage of the Globule eafier into the Seed- 
Veflel ; that being Its office. See Fig. 27. It is formed of tubes with open 
moutlis, capable to receive the globule of Farina; and thefe, after a fliort 
ftraight courle, all open into the hollow of the Seed-VefTel. 
If we cut open the Seed-VefTel in this tender ffiite, and before the 
Seeds have received the embryo Plant, we fhall find plain proof that they 
have this and no other ufe. For this purpofe we are to chufe a flower not 
yet open. In this we fhall find the Filaments very fhort, the Antherae long 
and entire, and the rudiment of the Seed-VefTel tender and whitifh ; if 
the Seeds have any young Plant in them now, it is their own, for no grain 
of the Farina is yet fhed ; indeed they are fcarce formed. 
We find on cutting the young Seed-VefTel tranfverfely, that it contains 
a double row of rudiments of Seeds, with a column in the middle ; and a 
quantity of fpungy matter among them. This is reprefented at Fig. 28. 
On cutting it lengthwife, we fee that the column in the middle of the Seed- 
VefTel is continued to the very fummit; and that the rough head or Stigma, 
is only a continuation of this column without the invefling Membranes of 
the Pod. See 29. The Seeds arranged on two Tides of this column, ad- 
here to it in the very manner that the globules of Farina do to the inner 
furface of the Anthera, that is, they rife from it : they are originally blif- 
ters in the furface of the Receptacle, and they retain to the lafl their open- 
ing into it. This is reprefented at 30. 
These Seeds in fo young a Pod as we are now examining, are mere 
tranfparent Blebs or Shells, opening by an oblong mouth into the hollow 
of the column. In a Flower a little more advanced, we fee this Shell 
filled with a thick white fluid, and in this condition we always find it, with 
this Ample and uniform appearance in the young Pods of thofe Flowers 
whofe Anthera are not yet burfl. Such a Seed is reprefented, at 31, filled 
with 
