THE MORPHOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF PLANTS. 69 



organ; but we are led to conclude, a priori, that which we 

 find, a posteriori, that axillary buds are as normally absent 

 in flowers as they are normally present lower down the axis. 

 And then, to complete the argument, we are prepared for the 

 corollary that axillary prolification may naturally arise even 

 at the ends of axes, should the failing nutrition which 

 causes the dwarfing of the foliar organs to form a flower, be 

 suddenly changed into such high nutrition as to transform 

 the components of the flower into appendages that are green, 

 if not otherwise leaf-like — a condition under which only, this 

 phenomenon is proved to occur. 



§ 195. One more question presents itself, when we con- 

 trast the early stages of development in the two classes of 

 Phaenogams; and a further answer, supplied by the hypo- 

 thesis, gives to the hypothesis a further probability. It is 

 characteristic of a monocotyledon, to have a single seed-leaf 

 or cotyledon; and it is characteristic of a dicotyledon, to 

 have at least two cotyledons, if not more than two. That is 

 to say, the monocotyledonous mode of germination every- 

 where coexists with the endogenous mode of growth; and 

 along with the exogenous mode of growth, there always goes 

 either a dicotyledonous or polycotyledonous germination. 

 Why is this? Such correlations cannot be accidental — 

 cannot be meaningless. A true theory of the phamogamic 

 types in their origin and divergence, should account for the 

 connexion of these traits. Let us see whether the foregoing 

 theory does this. 



The higher plants, like the higher animals, bequeath to 

 their offspring more or less of nutriment and structure. 

 Superior organisms of either kingdom do not, as do all 

 inferior organisms, cast off their progeny in the shape of 

 minute portions of protoplasm, unorganized and without 

 stocks of material for them to organize; but they either 

 deposit along with the germs they cast off, certain quantities 

 of albuminoid substance to be appropriated by them while they 



