Gaudichaud's " Vegetable Physiology:' 3Y3 



ceiveil opinions; and, quite recently, Lindley, an excellent observer 

 and a man of sound solid judgement, has strengthened it with all 

 the weight of his approbation. But we must allow that it reckons 

 as yet at least as many adversaries as partisans. M. Gaudichaud 

 arms himself to defend it with the arguments which his own dis- 

 coveries supply. It is by the help of time only, and after a very 

 serious examination, that we shall be entitled to pronounce on the 

 validity of consequences deduced from facts too recently known for 

 us to be able as yet to measure their just bearing. We shall there- 

 lore confine ourselves to stating briefly the theory unfolded by the 

 author, without venturing to approve or condemn it ; but we shall 

 not hesitate to give our opinion as to the accuracy of the numerous 

 facts which he has brought together. 



The task which M. Gaudichaud has undertaken is no light one. 

 He reviews in the following order the whole history of vegetable 

 life: 



1. Organography, or development and growth of the stems, &c.j 



2. I'hysiology, or phoenomena of the life of plants j 



3. Organogeny, or anatomical study of the development of 

 vegetable tissues. 



Organography, which forms the subject of the first part, subdi- 

 vides itself into three chapters: 1. the dicotyledoneae, 2. the mo- 

 nocotyledoneae, 3. the acotyledoneae. 



The author delivers at the present time, for the judgement of the 

 Academy, the two first chapters of this great undertaking, the pre- 

 cious materials for which are deposited in the botanical galleries of 

 the Jardin du Roi, where they are become an object of study and 

 admiration for connoisseurs. 



He sets forth the general principles by which he means to ex- 

 plain not only the mode of development and the organization of 

 stems, but also the mode of development and the organization of 

 the processifes or appendicular parts, that is to say, of scales, leaves, 

 stipulae, bracteae, calyxes, corollas, stamens, pistils, &c. which all 

 take their birth in the bud. These parts are only, according to 

 his idea, modifications of a single primitive organ of which the 

 monocotyledonous embryo is the type. 



In fact, in the same way that we see in the monocotyledonous 

 embryo, when it has taken all its normal expansion, a radicular 

 raamilla wiiich constitutes its descending system, and a cauliculus, 

 a cotyledon, and its support, which form together its ascending sy- 

 stem, in the same manner also we see in the more advanced plant 

 the root which represents the radicle, that is to say, the descending 

 system, and the merithallus with the leaf and its petiole, which 

 represent the cauliculus, the cotyledon, together with its support, 

 that is to say, the ascending system. 



Tills ascending system, modified in the other appendicular parts, 

 is not, however, so modified as that there is found in it no trace of 

 its distinctive features. 



The simple type which represents the monocotyledonous embryo 

 becomes double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, &c., in the dicotyle- 



