VEGETABLE TERATOLOGY. 



BOOK I. 



DEVIATIONS FROM THE OEDINAEY AERANGEMENT 

 OF OEGANS. 



As fiill details relating to the disposition or arrange- 

 ment of the general organs of flowering plants are given 

 in all the ordinary text-books, it is only necessary in 

 this place to allude to the main facts at present known, 

 and which serve as the standard of comparison with 

 which all morphological changes are compared. 



Even in the case of the roots, which appear to 

 be very irregular in their ramification, it has been 

 found that, in the first instance at least, the rootlets 

 or fibrils are arranged in regular order one over another, 

 in a certain determinate number of vertical ranks, gene- 

 rally either in two or in four, sometimes in three or in 

 five series. This regularity of arrangement (Rhizotaxy), 

 first carefully studied by M. Clos, is connected with 

 the disposition of the fibro-vascular bundles in the 

 body of the root. This primitive regularity is soon 

 lost as the plant grows. 



In the case of the leaves there are two principal 



1 



