Botany.] 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
545 
entirely the product of fecundation *. He asserts also that 
the Embryo constantly appears at that point of the ovulum 
where the ultimate branches of the umbilical vessels per- 
forate the inner membrane ; and therefore mistakes the apex 
for the base of the nucleus. 
In 1806 Mons. Turpin t published a memoir on the organ, 
by which the fecundating fluid is introduced into the vege- 
table ovulum. The substance of this memoir is, that in all 
Pheenogamous plants fecundation takes place through a cord 
or fasciculus of vessels entering the outer coat of the ovulum, 
at a point distinct from, but at the period of impregnation 
closely approximated to the umbilicus, and to the cicatrix of 
this cord, which itself is soon obliterated, he gives the name 
of Micropyle : that the ovulum has two coats, each having 
its proper umbilicus, or, as he terms it, omphalode ; that these 
coats in general correspond in direction ; that more rarely 
the inner membrane is, with relation to the outer, inverted ; 
and that towards the origin of the inner membrane the 
radicle of the embryo uniformly points. 
It is singular that a botanist, so ingenious and experienced 
as M. Turpin, should, on this subject, instead of appealing 
in every case to the unimpregnated ovulum, have apparently 
contented himself with an examination of the ripe seed. 
Hence, however, he has formed an erroneous opinion of 
the nature and origin, and in some plants of the situation, of 
the micropyle itself, and hence also he has in all cases mis- 
taken the apex for the base of the nucleus. 
A minute examination of the early state of the ovulum 
does not seem to have entered into the plan of the late 
celebrated M. Richard, when in 1808 he published his 
* GcBvt. de Fruct. et Sem. i. p. 57. 59. ef 61. 
t Annal. du 3Ius, d'Hist. Nat. vii, p. 199. 
VoL. II. 2 N 
