Gaertner, who, in the preface to his celebrated work, displays great erudition in every branch of his subject, can hardly, however, be considered an original observer in this part. He describes the unimpregnated Ovulum as a pulpy homogeneous globule, whose epidermis, then scarcely distinguishable, separates in a more advanced stage, and becomes the testa of the seed, the inner membrane of which is 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 perforate the inner membrane; and therefore mistakes the apex for the base of the nucleus. (*Footnote. Gaert. de Fruct. et Sem. 1 page 57, 59 et 61.) In 1806 Mons. Turpin* published a memoir on the organ, by which the fecundating fluid is introduced into the vegetable ovulum. The substance of this memoir is, that in all Phaenogamous 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. (*Footnote. Annal. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. 7 page 199.) 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 mistaken 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 valuable and original Analyse du Fruit. The ovulum has, according to him, but one covering, which in the ripe seed he calls episperm. He considers the centre of the hilum as the base, and the chalaza, where it exists, as the natural apex of the seed. M. Mirbel, in 1815, though admitting the existence of the foramen or micropyle of the testa,* describes the ovulum as receiving by the hilum both nourishing and fecundating vessels,** and as consisting of a uniform parenchyma, in which the embryo appears at first a minute point, gradually converting more or less of the surrounding tissue into its own substance; the coats and albumen of the seed being formed of that portion which remains.*** (*Footnote. Elem. de Physiol. Veg. et de Bot. tome 1 page 49.)