OF TirlK COTYLEDONS. '97 



Mr. Knight denominates it the germen, but 

 that term is appropriated to a very diflerent 

 part, the rudiment of the fruit. The expand- 

 ing Embn/o, resemblino; a httle feather, has 

 been for that reason named by Linnaeus Flu- 

 mula ; it soon becomes a tuft of young leaves, 

 with which the young stem, if there be any, 

 ascends. Till the leaves unfold, and some- 

 times after, the cotyledons, assuming their 

 green colour, perforni their functions ; then 

 the latter generally v/ither. This may be 

 seen in the Radish, Lupine, Garden Bean, 

 and various umbelliferous plants, in all vhich 

 the expanded cotyledons are remarkably dif- 

 ferent from the true leaves. Such is the ge- 

 neral course of vegetation in plants furnished 

 with two cotyledons, or dicotyledones ; but I 

 have already mentioned a very distinct tribe 

 called tnonocotyledones ; see p. 57- These 

 are the Grass and Corn tribe. Palms, the 

 beautiful Orchis family, and many others. 

 In these the body of the seed does not ascend 

 out of the ground, and tliey are rather 

 to be considered as having no cotyledon 

 at all. See Mr. Salisbury's paper in the 

 Transactions of the Linnean Society, v. 7j 



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