22 ‘GOETHE ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 
XI. Of the immediate Covering of the Seed. 
82. We find the seed, on the contrary, in the highest degree of con- 
traction, but internally perfect. It may be perceived, in various seeds, 
that transformed leaves constitute their first covering ; that they more 
or less adapt this covering to their shape, and, in most instances, that ` 
they have the power of closely attaching it, and of entirely changing its 
form. Having seen above, that many seeds are developed in and from 
a single leaf, we need feel no surprise that a single embryo should 
clothe itself with a leafy covering.* 
83. We see in many winged seed-vessels traces of such modified 
leaves imperfectly fitted to the seed,—in those, for instance, of the Maple, 
the Elm, the Ash, and the Birch. The Marigold affords us a very re- 
markable example, in its three circles of differently-shaped seeds (fruits), 
of the manner in which the embryo gradually contracts a covering of 
larger dimensions than itself, and closely adapts it to its own form. In 
the outer series, the seed-vessel still retains a shape resembling that of 
the leaflets of the involucre ; except that the rudimentary seed occasions 
a strain on the midrib, and curves the leaf; the inner curved surface 
being longitudinally divided, by a membrane, into two parts. 
In the next circle a still farther change takes place ; the little leaf is 
both narrower and shorter; the membrane has entirely disappeared, 
and the rudimentary seed is more plainly shown at the back ; on which 
moreover little excrescences are now perceptible; these two circles ap- 
pear to be either not at all, or imperfectly fertilized. In the third circle 
the curved shape of the seed is undisguised ; the covering fits closely, 
and all its ridges and excrescences are complete,f Here we see a fresh 
* For instances of the reversion of seeds, or ovules, to leaves, see Lindley, ‘ Ele- 
ments of Botany,’ p. 88; Moquin-Tandon, ‘ Tératologie Végétale,’ p. 205, ete. 
Tt can hardly be said that the morphology of the coats of the ovule, or seed, is yet 
understood. While there is much evidence to show their foliar origin, there is also 
much in favour of their intrinsic axial nature. 
ue A, Braun, Mem. sur les Transform. de l'Ovule Végétale, ete.; Aun. Se. Nat. 
sé: — xiv, 4me serie. Hooker on ovule of Welwitschia, Trans. Linn. Soc. 
+7 V. P- 27; Griffith in Lindl. Veg. King. p. 143. > 
-— —— the achenia of the outer or ligulate florets are, as Goethe de- 
—— polymorphous ; his account of them, though strictly correct in the 
— not be very intelligible to botanists not familiar with the plant. The 
—— e. are im two or three rows, frequently surmounted by a beak, all 
ee & — and the outer ones, especially, provided with three leafy wings ; 
es à -— M the margins, and the third from the middle of the inner surface ; 
allied © Ivides into two CO In Zripteris, a South African genus closely 
ted to Calendula, the fruits are even more decidedly three-sided and three-winged. 


