234 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



is an ovary ; according to the former, the stigma of this 

 ovary is represented by a pellucid and transverse line, 

 placed at the apex ; the same character is attributed to 

 the little central protuberance winch surmounts this 

 line. 



At the period of germination, we see the young plant 

 come out of the seed by the side ; its radicle is simple 

 and perpendicular; its plumule rises vertically, and is 

 terminated by two opposite leaves, from the axils of 

 which spring two branches. Inside the seed is an oily 

 body adherent' to the embryo, which Mr. Brotero calls 

 the Vitellus, and which appears to me to be the true 

 cotyledon ; the two opposite leaves, which these ob- 

 servers call Cotyledons, represent, in my opinion, the 

 primordial leaves. The change of character, assigned to 

 these organs, appears to me sufficiently authorized, both 

 because the vitellus is an almost imaginary organ, and 

 because it is impossible to compare Lycopodium with 

 Dicotyledons. 



From well known facts with regard to Lycopodium 

 dcnticulatum, we may easily conclude: — 1st, that in L, 

 Selaginoides, or the section Selaginella, the bivalve 

 shells which Hedwig described as the female organ are 

 the male, and the quadrivalve and reniform ones which 

 he described as males are the female organ : — 2d, that 

 it is the same in the sections Gymnogynum and Stachy- 

 gynandrum of Beauvois, although their structure has not 

 been as well studied ; but what is the character of the 

 shells which are observed in the Lycopodiums compos- 

 ing the sections Plananthes, Lycopodium, and Psilotum 

 of Beauvois ; that is to say, in all the Lycopodiaceae, 

 where but one class of organs is known ? Beauvois con- 

 siders them always as males, and regards the females as 

 unknown. Linneus also regarded the powder of these 

 shells as analogous to pollen, on account of its inflam- 



