150 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



2. As a general rule, the cotyledons, which are 

 the two first leaves to appear after germination, are 

 formed within the embryo. The ripe seeds of some 

 Anemones, however, contain no traces of cotyledons. 1 

 These are formed, nevertheless, 

 after germination, sometimes sprout- 

 ing up out of the ground and 

 becoming functional, and occasion- 

 ally remaining underground, in 

 which case they are quite small, 

 without chlorophyll and non- 

 functional (Anemone nemorosa); 

 these underground leaves may 

 fairly be regarded as rudimentary 

 organs. 



3. In Lathy rus Nissolia (fig. 60) 

 there are some very small stipules 

 of unimportant function, at the 

 base of the simplified leaves ; these 

 reduced stipules are occasionally 

 absent altogether. 



4. The foliage organs in the 

 adult Oxalis bulpeurifolia are 



FIG. 60.-Seedling of 



Lathyms Nissoiia. merely represented by enlarged 

 leaflets. These phyllodes bear reduced leaflets 

 which rapidly disappear. In an adult specimen of 

 the Acacia which has phyllodes, these reduced 

 leaves are absent. 



1 E. de Janczewsky, Etudes morphologiques sur le genre Anemone. 

 (Revue gentrale de botanique, t. iv., p. 241.) 



