Flora Scotica* 



PART II. 



Class I. ACOTYLEDONS. Jms. 



(Cryptogamia, Linn. Acotyledojies, and part of Monocotyle- 

 dones {Ferns), of Decand. and Brown. Agamce and Exem- 

 iryonntcp, Rich.) 



Fruit or organs of rejjroduction ^ without any Cotyledon. 



Vegetation. In all, with the exception of the Filices or Ferns, 

 the structure seems to be entirely cellular, and hence the term 

 " celhdareSy" applied to them by Decandolle, in opposition to 

 *^ vasculares," or those plants which, in addition to the cel- 

 lular structure, have tubular vessels, as in the cotyledonoiis 

 plants and the Fer?is ; on which account Decandolle and 

 Brown have removed these latter into the 2d Class, Monoco- 

 tyledons. 



Order I. FUNGI". Lhm. 



[Fungi, and part of Algce, Juss. Fungi, and part of Hy- 



poxy la, Decand.) 

 Plants growing upon the ground, or parasitic on other vegeta- 



^ The more intimately we become acquainted with the reproductive or- 

 gans of the Acotylcdonous or Ciyptogamic pkuits, the more apparent is it, 

 in my opinion, that there are no sexes as in the Phcenogamous plants, no sta- 

 mens and no pistil, nor any thing analogous to them ; consequently no tme 

 seed, v/hich can only be produced through their co-operation. The struc- 

 ture of the seeds themselves (more properly sporulcs) tends greatly to con- 

 firm such an opinion ; there being, in reality, no distinction into cotyledon, 

 vadlcule, ov jiliumdc, in short, no embryo, any more than there is in the little 

 bulbs seen upon tlie stalks of the Onion tribe, and upon the Polygonum vivi- 

 parum, &c., which, yet, equally produce perfect plants. A sporule has alike the 

 power of producing, from every part of it, either stem or root, as circum- 

 stances may require : but it is quite otherwise with the true seed. — On this 

 subject Professor Richard has ably written, both in his •' Dlctionnaire de la 

 Botanique," and in his " Analyse du Fruit ;" the latter of which works, con- 

 taining a valuable mass of information relative to fruits and seeds, has been 

 translated and published by Mr. Lindley, with illustrative plates. 



'' The arrangement, divisions, and characters, both of the genera and the 

 species of this order, are, for the most part, taken from the Synopsis Me- 

 ihodiea Fungorum of Pcrsoon. 



[A 2] 



