330 OF TriB ALBUMEN, 



the ground, and become a kind of leaves. Sucli 

 is the true idea of the organs in question, but 

 the same name is commonly given to the body 

 of the seed in the Grass and Corn tribe, the 

 Palms, and several other plants, thence denominated 

 monocotyledones, because the supposed Cotyledon is 

 single. The nature of this part we shall presently 

 explain. It neither rises out of the ground, nor per- 

 forms the proper functions of a Cotyledon^ for what 

 these plants produce is, from the first, a real leaf ; or, 

 if the plant has no leaves, the rudiment of a stem, as 

 in Cuscuta. In either case, the part produced is soli- 

 tary, never in pairs ; hence Gartner was misled to 

 reckon Cyamus Nelumho, Exot. Bot. t. 31, 32, 

 among the monocotyledonous plants, the body of its 

 seed remaining in the earth, and the leaves springing 

 one at a time from the Embryo, just as in the Date 

 Palm, Wheat, Barley, Sec. 



The Seed-lobes of Mosses, according to the ob- 

 servations of Hedwig, Fund, part 2, t. 6, are above 

 all others numerous and subdivided, f. 195, 196, as 

 well as most distinct from the proper leaves ; so that 

 these plants are very improperly placed by authors 

 among such as have no Cotyledons, a measure origi- 

 nating probably in theory and analogical reasoning 

 rather than observation. 



Albumen^ the White, is a farinaceous, fleshy, or 

 horny substance, which makes up the chief bulk of 

 some seeds, as Grasses, Corn, Palms, Lilies, never 

 rising out of the ground nor assuming the office of 



