Principia botanica: or, a concise and easy introduction to the sexual botany of Linnaeus ... / [Anon.] Arranged in columns under each class and order; and digested alphabetically under several generie distinctions. By which means most plants may be thus far ascertained. Together with three indexes ... Also a table of several vegetable drugs not in the indexes.

Robert Darwin

Date:: 1787

Credit: Principia botanica: or, a concise and easy introduction to the sexual botany of Linnaeus ... / [Anon.] Arranged in columns under each class and order; and digested alphabetically under several generie distinctions. By which means most plants may be thus far ascertained. Together with three indexes ... Also a table of several vegetable drugs not in the indexes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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seed. Or the coronula is a down* (pappus) which is either feathery, as in valtriana, leontodon, gnaphalium, or it is hairy, as in tiifsiiago, senecio, hieracium, ; it is also either sitting, (sefsilis) that is, attached close to the seed, as in hieracium, &V. or foot stalked (stipitatus) by a thread, elevating and conne&ing the crown or tuft with the seed, as in laHuca, crepis, Some seeds are also furnished with a wing, a tail, a /zoc/£, an fcfc. all coming under the term coronula, and tending either to disperse or fix the several seeds to which they belong.+ 6th. Nu x, (a nut) which is a seed inclosed in an hard woody substance, called the i/zc//, which is one-celled, two-celled, &c< and the inclosed seed is called (nucleus) the kernel. The seed of a mofs, not coming under the above de- scription, Linnaeus calls Prop ago, (a slip or shopt) which hath neither coat nor cotyledon, but consists only of a naked plumula, where the rostellum is inserted into the calyx of the plant. VII. The RECEPTACULUM (receptacle) is the base which receives, supports, and conne&s the o- ther parts of thefruttif cation, but it is only mentioned by Linnaeus (in his Gen, Pl.) when it can be introduced as a character varying in shape and surface, as principal- is A ]y * The down with which many seeds are furnished, as in gont's-beard, dandelion, thistle, &c. hath generally been thought intended to disperse them : yet as the down frequently breaks off, when the seeds have flown to some distance, and is seen flying alone ; it hath been imagined by some, that the down is only intended as a defence of the seed till arrived at maturity. f Some seeds are also furnished with an elastic force, in order to disperse them, which is either in the calyx, as in oats, and some others ; in the pap- pus, as in centaurea-crupina; or in the capsule, as in geranium, fraxinella, spurting cucumber,&c. Other seeds, especially thofe whose ptricarpium is a berry, as also the nutmeg, and other nuts, are dispersed by birds and other Animals.

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