OF ORGANIZATION. 2.15 



importance, in the indication of natural affinities. 

 The thing itself is often indeterminate, several ru- 

 diments of seeds being frequently provided, though 

 only one regularly conies to perfection. More fre- 

 quently are observable plants with numerous seeds in 

 a cell, or capsule, which are nearly, or very closely, 

 allied to others with only 1 or 2. See the Onagrcs 88, 

 of Jussieu, the Cruciferee 63, the genus Juncus, and 

 many besides. The provision of seed to each vege- 

 table is indeed of the last importance ; but the quan- 

 tity is, comparatively, immaterial, variable, or pre- 

 carious. It seems therefore that number, as a prin- 

 ciple of arrangement, may well be expected to prove 

 more treacherous here than in other cases. 



The nourishment of a seed, in the first stages of 

 germination, depending generally on the albumen, in 

 whatever form or state that substance may exist, is 

 variously conducted, according to circumstances, in 

 plants otherwise nearly allied ; witness the papiliona- 

 ceous family, where the albuminous matter is lodged 

 in cotyledons, that in some species rise into seminal 

 leaves, in others decay speedily under ground. In 

 some plants, as we have seen, the albumen is evident 

 in a distinct and separate form ; while in others, 

 nearly akin, no such substance exists, except, as must 

 be presumed, in the body of each cotyledon. Here 

 again therefore, however essential the part in question, 

 the mode of it's existence appears to be of very sub- 

 ordinate consideration, and should not be allowed, in 



