THE LEAVES OF VASCULAR PLANTS. 275 



Anemone, &c. : these radical ones are usually larger 

 and more cut than the others. 



As for floral leaves, all those are designated by this 

 name, which arise in the neighbourhood of the flowers : 

 we shall have occasion to revert in detail to their history 

 when we speak of the Inflorescence ; and we shall only 

 remark here, that they often differ from the ordinary 

 ones in their form, dimensions, colour, and even in their 

 position. 



Caulinary Leaves, considered v\ith regard to their suc- 

 cession at different intervals, are named Seminal, Pri- 

 mordial, or Ordinary. The Seminal ones are the 

 cotyledons of the seed developed into leaves, the first 

 which appear at germination ; the Primordial are those 

 which immediately succeed the seminal : these two kinds 

 of leaves, which are thrown off" soon after their develop- 

 ment, differ most frequently from all the following in 

 important characters ; they require to be specially men- 

 tioned, and we will examine them in the course of the 

 article upon the Seed. I am also obliged to state here, 

 that the description of the foliage of a plant means 

 usually the ordinary caulinary and ramal leaves, and 

 excludes all others : this is why Bonnet has given them 

 the name of Characteristic leaves. 



The position of leaves with reference to each other, is 

 much more important to study than any of the preceding 

 modes of considering them, and it is intimately connected 

 with the general symmetry of plants. Charles Bonnet 

 was one of the first who called the attention of na- 

 turalists to tliis phenomenon, which he has especially 

 considered physiologically, but which is not the less 

 worthy of being studied in an organographical point of 

 view. 



We may recognise two great classes in the disposition 

 of leaves : — The first is that of leaves placed, to the 



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