Miscellaneous. &f 



sidered the embryo as consisting of four entirely distinct cotyledons ; 

 Sir W. Hooker, on the contrary, stated that there were only two 

 semicylindrical cotyledons, each one divided into two very deep 

 lobes. But this interesting question, from the simply descriptive na- 

 ture of this note, will be examined subsequently in a more general 

 manner ; at all events, up to the present day the Schizopetalon Wal- 

 cheri continued the sole representative of a very curious group of 

 plants well deserving the attention of botanists. 



Aug. Pyrame DeCandoUe, after having established in his beautiful 

 memoir on the Cruci/era the bases of an embryonal classification, 

 subsequently applied them in his ' Prodromus,' and adopted them 

 more or less successfully to the new species ; but he had the prudent 

 reserve to place the Schizopetalon Walcheri at the extremity of the 

 series and among the genera Incertce sedis. Moreover the species, 

 then somewhat rare, was not well known to him, and he did well to 

 follow in this case the wise principles laid down by Jussieu. The 

 rich collections of plants brought from Chili by our indefatigable 

 traveller Claude Gay have furnished us with numerous materials on 

 the subject ; and since the true position of Schizopetalon can no longer 

 be called in question, we shall be able to show, that although science 

 owes its most beautiful and most profound investigations on the 

 Cruci/erce to the genius of DeCandoUe, there may nevertheless be 

 objected to his embryonal classification, its frequently artificial side,, 

 owing to the starting from one single organ. Nature appears to 

 have created the group of the Schizopetalete to prove how little stable 

 are frequently the majority of those sections or subdivisions of family 

 which are not founded upon a totality of characters of affinity, as the 

 •true natural method requires. 



In the herbarium from Chili we find six species of Schizopetalon^ 

 of which five are new. If we study these plants with care before 

 dissecting the seed, we are led to arrange them all in the same genus ; 

 all have a perfect similitude in the various organs of the flower, the 

 same aspect, and nearly the same habit ; in a word, we find an al- 

 most uniform plan of generic structure. The anatomy of the seed 

 then demonstrates a considerable difference between several of the 

 species. We find, on the one hand, very minute globular seeds pre- 

 senting an embryo with four linear and spiral cotyledons, with curved 

 radicle, evidently belonging to the Spirolohece of DeCandoUe ; and on 

 the other, oval seeds larger than the preceding, their embryo with two 

 incumbent spathulate cotyledons, and with an almost straight dorsal 

 radicle, evidently belonging to the section Notorhizeoe. This is the 

 most striking character of the new genus Perreymondia *. 



Now it is quite plain that it is impossible to separate, without 

 violating the laws of natural affinity, in a methodical distribution of 

 the Cruciferous plants, these two genera {Schizopetalon and Perrey- 

 mondia), so nearly related, and solely distinct as respects the embryo, 

 as it would be necessary to do according to the classification of De- 

 CandoUe. 



The anatomical structure of the seed of the Schizopetalece is com- 



* h\ honour of Perreymond, a distinguished botanist of Provence. 



F2 



