Miscellaneous. 67 
sidered the embryo as consisting of four entirely distinct cotyledons ; 
Sir W. Hooker, on the contrary, stated that there were only two 
semicylindrical cotyledons, each one divided into two very deep 
lobes. But this interesting question, from the simply descriptive na- 
ture of this note, will be examined subsequently in a more general 
manner ; at all events, up to the present day the Schizopetalon Wal- 
cheri continued the sole representative of a very curious group of 
plants well deserving the attention of botanists. 
Aug. Pyrame DeCandolle, after having established in his beautiful 
memoir on the Crucifere the bases of an embryonal classification, 
subsequently applied them in his ‘ Prodromus,’ and adopted thein 
more or less successfully to the new species; but he had the prudent 
reserve to place the Schizopetalon Walcheri at the extremity of the 
series and among the genera Incerte sedis. Moreover the species, 
then somewhat rare, was not well known to him, and he did well to 
follow in this case the wise principles laid down by Jussieu. The 
rich collections of plants brought from Chili by our indefatigable 
traveller Claude Gay have furnished us with numerous materials on 
the subject ; and since the true position of Schizopetalon can no longer 
be called in question, we shall be able to show, that although science 
owes its most beautiful and most profound investigations on the 
Crucifere to the genius of DeCandolle, there may nevertheless be 
objected to his embryonal classification, its frequently artificial side, 
owing to the starting from one single organ. Nature appears to 
have created the group of the Schizopetalee to prove how little stable 
are frequently the majority of those sections or subdivisions of family 
which are not founded upon a totality of characters of affinity, as the 
true natural method requires. 
In the herbarium from Chili we find six species of Schizopetalon, 
of which five are new. If we study these plants with care before 
dissecting the seed, we are led to arrange them all in the same genus ; 
all have a perfect similitude in the various organs of the flower, the 
same aspect, and nearly the same habit; in a word, we find an al- 
most uniform plan of generic structure. The anatomy of the seed 
then demonstrates a considerable difference between several of the 
species. We find, on the one hand, very minute globular seeds pre- 
senting an embryo with four linear and spiral cotyledons, with curved 
radicle, evidently belonging to the Spirolobee of DeCandolle ; and on 
the other, oval seeds larger than the preceding, their embryo with two 
incumbent spathulate cotyledons, and with an almost straight dorsal 
radicle, evidently belonging to the section Notorhizee. ‘This is the 
most striking character of the new genus Perreymondia*. 
Now it is quite plain that it is impossible to separate, without 
violating the laws of natural affinity, in a methodical distribution of 
the Cruciferous plants, these two genera (Schizopetalon and Perrey- 
mondia), so nearly related, and solely distinct as respects the embryo, 
as it would be necessary to do according to the classification of De- 
Candolle. 
The anatomical structure of the seed of the Schizopetalee is com- 
* In honour of Perreymond, a distinguished botanist of Provence. 
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