1346. The flowerless or asexual plants can have no genuine seed or no
embryo. For the genuine seed is the repetition of the blossom under the
idea of root. (Ed. 1st, 1810. § 1564.)
1347. That which has been called germinal powder is no seed or germ,
but only albumen or perisperm. It has no seed-petiole, has only been
exuded out of what has been called the wall of the capsule, and
exhibits in its composition no seed-lobes. (Ed. 1st. § 1586.)
1348. What is termed capsule in the Acotyledones is none other than the
seed-shell, whereupon it follows of itself, that the so-called seeds
can have no umbilical cords or seed-petioles. (Ed. 1st; 1810. § 1573.)
1349. The capsules of ferns are involuted like most dicotyledonous
seeds. The ring corresponds to the seed-rib or raphe, the fissure
to the seed-aperture or micropyle. The involuted fern-capsule is a
repetition of the involuted fern-frond. The little heaps of capsules or
sori are consequently not pollen, but a nest of seeds surrounded by an
indusium or veil, which, probably, corresponds to the ovary.
1350. The capsule of mosses is an antetype of monocotyledonous seeds;
it is a spathe-leaf with the lateral suture; it springs up in a tubular
manner similar to grass-leaves, that free themselves from the nodes of
the culm.
1351. The hollow columella, which likewise contains germinal powder,
is an internal spathe, which corresponds to the germinal leaf of
grasses.
1352. The oral teeth are the dissevered parallel strips of vessels in
the culm and leaf of the Monocotyledons.
1353. The urn-supporting pedicel is the seed-petiole or umbilical cord.
1354. The calyptra probably corresponds to the arillus and thus to the
bud-scales; or possibly to the indusium of the ferns, and thus to the
ovary.
1355. The leaf-roses would consequently be the involucral leaves of the
moss-stalk; the moss-stalk itself a peduncle or flower-stalk; so that
in the upper involucral leaves rudiments might indeed appear of stamina.
1356. In the lichens and fuci the whole trunk is none other than
seed-shell.
1357. In the fungi, the antetype of the Acotyledons, it may be almost
said that the whole stem is nothing else but albumen, the external
layers of which only cling together in a membranaceous manner, and
represent a kind of seed-shell. The fungus is an albumen-body,
which has coagulated out of vegetable juices. In the fungus, seed,
seed-vessel, ovary, blossom, foliage and trunk have become blended into
one.
1358. In a perfect blossom the albumen is therefore the repetition of
a fungus; the acotyledonous seed that of lichen; the monocotyledonous
seed-vessel that of a moss; the dicotyledonous, however, is the
repeated fern. It may be also said that the albumen were fungus; the
germ, lichen; the seed-vessel, moss; the ovary perhaps, a fern, namely,
its indusium.
II.--_PHYTO-PHYSIOLOGY._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account