SECT. I. THE SEED. 



regard to the propriety of any arrangement that 

 would transfer the plants in question to any division 

 of vegetables different from that in which he has 

 placed them. 



The opinion of Gaertner with regard to the The coty- 



ledon of 



Grasses has been also denounced as erroneous ;* grasses, 

 not in supposing them to be furnished with a coty- 

 ledon, that is indivisible into lobes, for that is 

 admitted ; but in regarding the sheath, that in- 

 vests the plantlet as being their cotyledon: which 

 opinion I do, however, most confidently adopt, for 

 reasons founded on a minute investigation of the 

 subject, which I may perhaps have an opportunity 

 of introducing in the sequel of the work. 



The Scitaminece then is the only one of the above 

 mentioned tribes about the cotyledon of which, ac- 

 cording to Gartner's view of the subject, there 

 seems to be no dispute. But as the British phyto- 

 logist can have but few opportunities of observing 

 the germination of such plants, I shall point out an 

 example or two to which he can have easy access, 

 and in which he may trace the phenomena of the 

 germination of plants furnished with a single- 

 lobed cotyledon only, without going far from his 

 home. These are first, Alllum Cepa or the common 

 Onion, which is to be found in every garden; and Of the 



secondly, Alisma Plantago or Water Plantain, and 



which is to be found in almost every pond or ditch. P Iantam - 

 * Smith's Inquiry into the Structure of Seeds. Lin. Trans, ix. 



