Primordial Leaves of the Sycamore, W 



81 



(fg, 81. c). This shows that the multiplication of the coty- 

 ledons in some plants may be the result merely of a subdi- 

 vision in the two which belong to them in their normal 

 condition, and that it may not have originated in any supernu- 

 merary developement of these organs themselves. Their 

 comparative inequality, however, soon ceases as the plant 

 developes itself. In one instance I have remarked a cohesion 

 taking place between the two cotyledons nearly throughout 

 their whole length ( fig. 80. d), and then the young plant had 

 strangely assumed the form of a monocotyledon. Sometimes 

 the superfluous division was continued to the primordial 

 leaves, of which there was one large, and two that were 

 smaller {fig. 81. ^): but I have never observed this anomaly 

 extend beyond them; the next in succession, and all after 

 them, being developed in pairs in the usual way. The above 

 figures are selected from among several varieties which I pos- 

 sess of this anomalous germination of the sycamore. 



I remain. Sir, yours, &c. 

 Cambridge, Feb, 2. 1832. J. S. Henslow. 



Very interesting, even under ordinary circumstances, are the seed- 

 vessels, seeds, and germination of the seeds, of that free-growing, broad- 

 leaved, umbrageous tree, the sycamore. The samaras (winged capsules) 

 are usually produced in pairs, rarely in threes ; in every three which I have 

 met with, the seed (for every capsule usually includes but a single seed) 

 within the third samara has been imperfect. The funiculi, or umbilical 

 cords, are to be traced with easy obviousness in their passage through the 

 base of the samaras, and to their union with the seed's own proper envelopes. 

 Admirable, too, is the neat and copious lining of soft and glossy down, 

 with which the interior of the cell of the samara is coated, to lodge the 

 seed commodiously, till winds have acted on the wings of the capsules, 

 and disseminated them, and the moisture of the earth whereon they 

 fall has, by its stimulus, excited the seeds they contain to germinate. 

 " Cotyledons folded" is, in English Flora (vol. ii. p. 230.), a generic 

 character of J'cer; in J'cer Pseudo-Pldtanus, the sycamore, they are 

 circinately so, and incumbent on the radicle * : the chewed cotyledons and 

 primordial leaves are bitter to the taste. — J. D. 



* The earlier an error is noticed the better. Of CVambe nuu'itima it is 

 remarked in English Flora, vol. iii. p. 184., " Cotyledons aecumbent, not 



