52 THE GRASSES. 



der, but its half ; or rather, it is on one side convex, 

 and on the opposite hollow or grooved. Nor is there 

 any thing like a pericarp, or vessel for the enclosure 

 of the seed in the Grasses, which, destitute of a true 

 flower, are likewise without its concomitant pericarp, 

 and present the rare example of a perfectly naked 

 seed, inclosed only by that substitute which nature has 

 provided for the protection of the stamens. The 

 Grasses, in common with the Lilies, also present anom- 

 alies, from the other plants we have examined, in their 

 mode of germinating. After planting the seed of the 

 Radish or Mustard, you perceive that it, at first, de- 

 velopes two leaves, quite different in form and sub- 

 stance from those which succeed ; these two leaves 

 are called cotyledones, and the great mass of plants 

 which produce them, are, by those who study natural 

 affinities, hence called Dicotyledones. In our tribe, 

 the Grasses, a very different arrangement takes place 

 for the nourishment of the infant plant, which could 

 not, apparently, subsist without some such prepared 

 supply. On planting a grain of Corn, Wheafr or 

 Barley, after the protrusion of the germ, and the de- 

 velopement of its leaves, which are all alike except in 

 size, and very different from true seed-leaves, the 

 whole mass of the grain, unaltered in its form, will be 

 found attached, and never transformed into cotyle- 

 dones. By most of those, however, who study the nat- 

 ural method, this class of plants are called Monocoty- 

 ledones, or plants with one seed-lobe, though with 

 propriety they may rather be considered as destitute 

 of proper seed-lobes altogether, and the germ, mere- 

 ly nourished by a reservoir of inert matter, saccharine 

 in Barley, after undergoing a chemical change, and 

 passing by solution into the vessels of the growing 

 plant. We see, then, here, an additional substitution 

 for true rotvledones, not merelv for the Grasses, 



