206 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



therefore it is with just reason that all plants with oppo- 

 site or verticillate cotyledons have been classed together : 

 perhaps a more applicable name than that of Dicotyle- 

 dons might have been given to them ; but it must be 

 observed that it is not the number which is essential, 

 but their respective position. Although I do not attach, 

 as one sees, as great importance to the number as the 

 term Dicotyledon would lead one to believe, I ought to 

 notice, however, notwithstanding what has been said, 

 that I have never seen Ranunculus, Fumaria, Sfc. ger- 

 minate with one cotyledon, the binary number peculiar 

 to the class being always met with. 



The second system of arrangement of the cotyledons 

 is, that where the leaves being naturally and essentially 

 alternate, the lower one or cotyledon is solitary, and 

 consequently lateral. The plants or embryos in which 

 this disposition takes place, bear the name of Monoco- 

 tyledons ; this term is more correct, in general, than 

 the preceding, but still anomalies are met with here and 

 there. In most monocotyledonous embryos the cotyle- 

 don or lower leaf is alone so large and developed as to 

 be visible in the seed ; but it frequently happens that 

 along the gemmule we observe other little bodies analo- 

 gous to the cotyledons, and situated alternately : these 

 are, properly speaking, primordial leaves ; if this name 

 be given to them, the plant might be said, in a strict 

 sense, to be monocotyledonous; but if they be called se- 

 condary cotyledons, which their appearance and nature 

 might authorize, it must then be said that they are 

 Monocotyledons with two or more alternate cotyledons ; 

 thus here also it is the position and not the number 

 which serves for the character of classification. Cycas 

 is the only really doubtful case which may be mentioned 

 as tending to impair the separation of the two great 

 classes of Vasculares ; we here find two cotyledons more 



