OF THE EMBRYOS IN THE SEEDS OF CONIFER/E. 575
not altogctlicr improbable on considerinp; the Jinalofrous occonomy in several tribes of insects, in some of which the male fluid remains inactive in the femide for a still lonjrcr period ;^ and in plants, though for a nmch shorter period, I may refer to Goodcnovicc, in which the j)ollen is ap|)lied to the stigma a considerable time before that organ is sulii- ciently developed to act upon or transmit its influence.- But the supposed protracted state of inactivity in the |)ollen oi Pinus does not necessarily lead to the adoption of Dr. rsri Schleiden's theory. With respect to Cycadece, whatever opinion may be adopted as to the precise mode of action of the pollen in that family, it is certain that the mere enlarge- ment of the fruit, the consolidation of albumen, and the complete formation of the corpuscula in its apex are wholly independent of male influence, as I have proved in cases where pollen could not have been applied, namely, in plants both of Cycas and Zamia [Encephalarlos) ])roducing female flowers in England at a time when male ilowers were not known to exist in the country.
��EXPLANATION OF PLATE 33 (YII).
Fig. L A scale of the cone of Pinus sylvestris, with its winged seeds, one of which is abortive : natural size.
N.B. The remaining figures arc more or less magnified.
Fig. 2. An unripe seed, of which the testa, in this state cartihiginous, is cut open, partly removed and tlirown back to show the included body, wiiich is the half-ripe original nucleus with its sphacelated aj)ex and the free portion of the inner coat, extending from the apex to about one third of the length of the nucleus, below which it is intimately connected with and inseparable from the outer coat.
Fig. 3. The amnios or albumen, with the coats opened and laitl back.
a. The body of the albumen, with its slightly concave upper extremity : in this stage separated from h, the aj)cx, which is conical above, bcluw cylin- drical, and which was suspended from the top of the original nucleus.
��' llerold. Entwickel. der Schmetterl. &c. IS 15, ct Siebold in Miillcr's Archiv, 1837, p. 392.
- Append, to Fliiulcrs's Austral, p. 50 1. [Jfifc, p. 33.]
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