II. 
SEEDS AND FRUITS; THEIR STRUCTURE AND MIGRATIONS. 
By A. E. Gibbs, E.L.S. 
Read at Watford, 21 st January , 1890. 
One of the first truths a seeker after knowledge in the kingdoms 
of nature has to learn is the universal application of the great law 
of order. Nature allows nothing to happen in a haphazard way, 
and chance is a word which must not be found in a naturalist’s 
vocabulary. As that quaint old seventeenth-century physician and 
writer, ISir Thomas Browne, tersely puts it: “All things began 
in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again.” All 
through the realms of nature fixed laws operate, and it is of some 
of these laws which govern the structure and dissemination of seeds 
and fruits that I have now to treat. 
In the first place we have to ask what is the difference between 
a seed and a fruit—how may they he distinguished from one 
another?—for many people seem to regard the two words as 
synonymous, and use them very loosely. To make the difference 
clear I may perhaps he pardoned for briefly noticing some very 
elementary facts in structural botany. Any ordinary perfect flower 
will he found to be made up of four sets of organs. The first or 
outer is usually green, and often consists of a number of distinct 
parts. This is called the calyx, and the separate parts are sepals. 
Its function is protective—to shield the more delicate inner organs 
from harm before they arrive at maturity. The second set of 
organs is generally brightly coloured and is collectively called the 
corolla, and the separate parts are petals. The function of these 
coloured leaves is to make the flower attractive. Proceeding still 
towards the centre of the flower there is next a number of more 
or less pin-shaped bodies called stamens, in the heads of which a 
powder called pollen is produced. Then in the very centre are 
found one or more organs called carpels, constituting the pistil. 
The function of these last two sets of organs is reproductive, and 
it is in the carpel that the seeds are formed. A typical pistil 
consists of three parts—a head or stigma, a column or style, and a 
hollow part at the base called the ovary, which contains a number 
of little bodies called ovules. Having proceeded so far it is easy 
to get at the difference between a seed and a fruit. A seed is 
simply one of these ripened ovules. A fruit contains the seeds, 
and consists of the ovary and whatever other parts may persist 
when the seed is ripe. Eor instance, an apple is a fruit; its pips 
are seeds. The fleshy part of the apple is simply the receptacle 
which was adherent to the ovary and has swollen and become edible. 
Having found out the difference between a seed and a fruit, let 
us now see how a seed grows. That mysterious power implanted 
within it that we call life of course is beyond our comprehension; 
all we can do is to watch the process of growth. Three things 
only are necessary to make a seed germinate—a certain amount of 
