Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/317

 Rh and enlarged into a Seed-vessel, as in Pinus, the Fir.

In the most perfect examples of this kind of fruit the Seeds are closely sheltered by the scales as by a capsule, of which the Fir, Cypress, &c., are instances. In the Birch and Alder they have a kind of capsule besides, and in the Willow and Poplar a stalked bivalve capsule, still more separate from the scales. The Plane-tree, Platanus, the Liquidambar and the Comptonia, have globular catkins, in which bristles or tubercles supply the place of scales. See Gærtner, t. 90.

6. . The Seeds are the sole "end and aim" of all the organs of fructification. Every other part is, in some manner, subservient to the forming, perfecting, or dispersing of these. A seed consists of several parts, some of which are more essential than others, and of these I shall speak first.

Embryo, the Embryo, or Germ, is the most essential of all, to which the rest are wholly subservient, and without which no