natural Family of Plants called Composite. —— 79 
 sider my observations as either wholly or even in any considera- 
ble degree anticipated by the passage in question. My observa- 
tions notice not only the disposition of the five vessels in the tube 
of the corolla, but their ramification in the laciniz, by no means. 
a necessary consequence of that disposition ; they notice also the 
existence, in several genera of Composite, of five vessels alter- 
. nating with those, and which I considered secondary in this order, 
though they occupy the place of the primary vessels in other fa- 
milies: and it is this inverted disposition, indicated in the greater 
part of the class by the primary being the only vessels existing, 
which I have considered as of material importance in determin- 
ing the limits of Composite, though by no means as affording an 
essential practical character for the whole class. 
In the passage quoted from M. Cassini (the only one I can find 
relative to the subject in the memoir in which it occurs), the 
existence of five nerves or vessels in the tube of the corolla, 
alternating with its laciniz, is stated, but their division and. dis- 
position in the laciniæ are not noticed; it is at the same time to be 
inferred from the terms of the passage, that no other vessels exist 
in the tube of the corolla: and itis equally evident that, so far from. 
announcing this disposition of vessels as a discovery, or peculiar 
to the order, the author rather considers it either as a fact already 
known, or as the usual structure. That M. Cassini was not then. 
aware of the importance of the fact which he had imperfectly 
stated, appears likewise from his having, many months after his. 
memoir was read, and at a time when he says he had finished his 
analysis of the corolla, proposed.a name for the class, taken from 
a supposed peculiarity in the structure of the filament, a name 
which he is now inclined to abandon for one derived from the dis- 
position of vessels in the corolla. 
Since 
