OUTSIDE AND IN. 



109 



exogens, bicots. I mean steadily to call them one-leaved and 

 two-leaved, for this further reason, that they differ not merely 

 in the single or dual springing of first leaves from 

 the seed ; but in the distinctly single or dual ar- 

 rangement of leaves afterwards on the stem ; so that, 

 through all the complexity obtained by alternate and 

 spiral placing, every bicot or two-leaved flower or tree 

 is in reality composed of dual groups of leaves, sep- 

 arated by a given length of stem ; as, most charac- 

 teristically in this pure mountain type of the Bagged 

 Robin (Clarissa laciniosa), Fig. 18 ; and compare A, 

 and B, Lines-tudy II. ; while, on the other hand, the 

 monocot plants are by close analysis, I think, always 

 resolvable into successively climbing leaves, sessile 

 on one another, and sending their roots, 

 or processes, for nourishment, down 

 through one another, as in Fig. 19. 



4. Not that I am yet clear, at all, my- 

 self ; but I do think it's more the botan- 

 ists' fault than mine, what ' cotyledonous' 

 structure there may be at the outer base 

 of each successive bud ; and still less, how 

 the intervenient length of stem, in the I<IIG - 19> 

 bicots, is related to their power, or law, of branching. 

 For not only the two-leaved tree is outlaid, and the 

 one-leaved inlaid, but the two-leaved tree is branched, 

 and the one-leaved tree is not branched. This is a 

 most vital and important distinction, which I state to 

 you in very bold terms, for though there are some 

 apparent exceptions to the law, there are, I believe, 

 no real ones, if we define a branch rightly. Thus, 

 the head of a palm tree is merely a cluster of large 

 leaves ; and the spike of a grass, a clustered blossom. 

 The stem, in both, is unbranched ; and we should be 

 able in this respect to classify plants very simply in- 

 PIG. is. deed, but for a provoking species of intermediate 

 creatures whose branching is always in the manner of corals, 

 or sponges, or arborescent minerals, irregular and accidental, 



