Organhation in Phcenogamous Plants, 247 



It is of course evident that I could subjoin but few drawings, 

 necessary in explaining some of the most important points of 

 my investigation ; and I will only hope that by reason of this 

 deficiency I have not become too frequently unintelligible. 



I am only desirous of having such persons as judges of my 

 work who have recourse to nature as umpire, and who have 

 no other object in view than Truth, the only praiseworthy 

 motive in scientific pursuits and which alone has been my 

 guide in all my investigations; if by this I have been the means 

 of contributing but a little to the cause of science, I shall con- 

 sider myself as eminently fortunate. 



SI quid novisti rectius istis, 



Candidus imperti . si non, his utere mecum. 



Appendix, — I have referred frequently in the course of the 

 foregoing treatise to Lathrcca squamaria, which I have done 

 in preference to other plants on account of the clear and 

 evident manner in which I have seen many parts in this. Now 

 it has just met my eye that Unger (Beitrdge zur Ken?itniss, 

 etc. Ann. de Wiener Mus., vol. ii. p. 50,) denies the exist- 

 ence of cotyledons and radicle in the embryo of Lat/ircea ; 

 any one may therefore naturally object that I have selected but 

 a poor subject as an example. I must, however, confess that 

 I cannot comprehend Unger*s assertion, for the embryo of 

 Lathrcca has such evident cotyledons that they may clearly 

 be perceived with the help of a lens of from six to eight times 

 magnifying power, and an acute observer may recognise them 

 without the aid of a glass. The cotyledons are at least equally 

 long with the other parts of the embryo, as they have been 

 figured by Gaertner. I can scarcely imagine, I must confess, 

 that Unger should have entirely overlooked the embryo and 

 have taken the very firm albumen for it. Generally speaking, 

 the acotyledonous plants must not be understood as forming 

 a third division in opposition to the monocotyledonous and 

 dicotyledonous, and indeed the importance of this character- 

 istic is very subordinate ; it is a phaenomenon which may oc- 

 cur in every sort of plant. The matter consists merely in the 

 period of latent vegetation commencing somewhat earlier, 

 whilst the completion of the embryo in the fruit only proceeds 

 as far as the point, where it becomes of a globular shape; 

 but the farther development passes over the fruit into the 

 germination, as is the case in the entire family of the Orchidece, 



In page 51 Unger expresses his opinion that the Orohan- 

 chece should be united to the Lahiatcc ; now the construction 

 of the ovarium is precisely the distinctive character of the 

 Labiatcc, and which is wanting in the Orobanchece, On the 

 other hand, Lathrcca (which likewise possesses stomata) and 

 Orohanche agree so completely with the Scrophularinece in 



