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he always used when he could not decide whether the part 

 in question were a branch, leaf, or stem. We cannot but 

 think these are truly leaves, though it must be confessed 

 they differ from the generality of such, in being destitute 

 of any line of separation by which they are capable of 

 falling, or being thrown off, from the stem. In this they 

 agree with the foliage of Musci and J ungermannicE, ; there 

 being a perfect continuity of substance throughout. The 

 hardened torn fibres, or rather vessels, which remain on 

 the stems of palms, where the leaves have once been, are 

 precisely the same as what occur in various mosses ; and 

 something similar may be observed in many liliaceous 

 plants and their allies, which approach to the nature of 

 palms. 



In describing the fructification of this order, Linnaeus 

 considered as belonging thereto, what we should presume 

 to be rather the inflorescence. Hence the great branch- 

 ing flowerstalk retains, in a technical sense, the name of 

 spadix, derived from the ancients ; and its ample con- 

 taining sheath is denominated a spatha. The latter is 

 reckoned a kind of calyx, as the former a sort of branched 

 common receptacle. Linnseus strengthens his terminology 

 in this case, by tracing an analogy between the spatha 

 of palms, and the glume of grasses. We doubt whether 

 any such particular analogy exists. Neither does his 

 other comparison, of the part in question to the sheath 

 of a Narcissus and its allies, at all, as far as we can judge, 

 elucidate or confirm his principle. He surely swerves in 

 these instances, as well as in his generic distinctions of 

 the umbelliferous plants, from the correctness of an axiom, 

 on which botany as a philosophical science depends, 

 that generic characters, and much more those of classes 

 and orders, should be exclusively derived from the parts 

 of fructification. Surely a very slight consideration of 

 the flowers and fruits of the Palmte, as we have become 

 acquainted with them since the time of Linnseus, will 

 abundantly satisfy any person, that they afford clear cha- 



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