28 
an egg defends the young chick; and, being indigestible, the seed passes 
uninjured through the bodies of animals when swallowed whole, and, 
being of an oleagenous nature, it prevents a too copious influx of moisture 
from coming to the lobes, which are sure to rot them. This part, therefore, 
is not so essential to growth as was supposed by Grew, several seeds being 
known to germinate equally well when divested of their arillus, if placed in 
a soil that is not too moist. 
We come now to the consideration of the lobes , improperly called coty¬ 
ledons by Linnaeus, from the analogy which he supposed this part bore to 
the cotyledones in brutes.T 
We will endeavour to shew that it bears a much stronger affinity with 
the MAMMiE, or breasts, indulging that freedom of inquiry for which the 
present age is so remarkable. 
Formerly investigation was silenced by authority. The Ipse Dixit of a 
great name was received with oracular veneration. The mind yielded pas¬ 
sive obedience, and all the free scope of the understanding was shackled by 
a blind admiration. 
But, at the same time, whilst we presume to differ with so great a genius, 
we do it with all due deference, not less admiring the transcendent talents 
of the great reformer of Botany, than the astronomer who depicts a few spots 
in the sun can revere the less that bright luminary. 
The Author of Nature, with equal eye, watches over the infancy of the 
whole creation. The animal enjoys the milky fountain of its mother. The 
infant vegetable lives upon a similar fluid, though differently supplied. 
For its use the lobes, which serve the office of breasts, form a kind of 
milk, which is conveyed to the plantule by means of the returning vessels, 
which descend to it from the substance of the lobes. 
It is curious to observe, that even the mucilage of almonds has obtained 
the appellation of milk of almonds. 
The liquor procured from barley, when it has germinated, is called sweet- 
wort, and new milk, we know, has the same soft and sweet taste. 
Without this supply of balmy liquor, the plantule must inevitably have 
perished; its roots being then too small to absorb a sufficient quantity of 
bland food, and its organs too weak to assimilate it into nourishment. 
* Vide Sect. VIII. on the propagation of plants. 
f The cotyledones in brutes are analogous to the placenta in us, being several small 
to which the several foetuses are attached. 
placentulfe, 
