SECT. I. THE SEED. 25Q 



ledonous ; in the latter case, it is said to be Dicoty- 

 ledonous. 



Dicotyledonous seeds, which constitute by far the Divisible 

 majority of seeds, are well exemplified in the Gar- 

 den Bean, in which the cotyledons appear, as in 

 many other seeds, immediately under the proper 

 integuments, in the form of two large lobes of a 

 plano-convex figure, and fleshy but firm contex- 

 ture ; without indentations or divisions, having 

 the flattened surface closely applied together, and 

 forming conjunctively a sort of kidney-shaped 

 figure, as well as constituting the principal mass of 

 the seed, which has seldom any albumen if the 

 cotyledon is large. In other cases the lobes are in 

 their united figure cylindrical, as in Pisonia ; or 

 spiral, as in the Pomegranate ; or sickle-shaped, as 

 in Canella ; or hooked and semi-circular, as in the 

 LychnidecE ; or they are cleft, as in the Lime-tree ; 

 or keeled, as in the Privet ; or hollowed out into 

 cavities, as in the Beech. They are also, for the 

 most part, divisible without much difficulty, as they 

 are not united by the whole of their tangent sur- 

 faces, but only by a point situated somewhere in 

 their circumference, and forming a small protu- 

 berance; though there are some examples, as in 

 Tropaolum, in which the flattened surfaces do finally 

 coalesce, about the time of the maturity of the 

 fruit ; as well as others in which, from the diminu- 

 tive size of the seed, the division is not easily ef- 

 fected. In the former case the seeds should be 



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