96 



Winkler in his paper, 



J 



Dicotylen,t where he calls the attention to the same manner 



* Liniiaea, Vol. VII, 1832, page 561. 



f Verhandlungen d. hot. Vereins d. Provinz. Brandt*nburg, Vol. X^ I, 



1874. 



^ 



further shows the pecviHar fact, that the cotyledons are un- 

 equal as well as different in shape. In regard to the mono- 

 cotyledonous plants we are also ^able to find among them 

 some characteristic differences, the long, terete, leaf-like and 

 free cotyledon of Agaz^e in contrast to the short, conical 

 cotyledon of Yjtcca, which is enclosed in the seed. The 

 distinct epicotyl, observed in Sjnilax, ^-^///^//m/;;/, etc., and 

 the development of the bud in the axil of the cotyledon in the 

 first genus. And if we consider the i^raceae, we shall find, 

 for instance, as pointed out by Engler (1. c), that the final 

 leaves are most often preceded by scale-like ones in the 

 species with exalbuminous seed, as showni in Peltandra, 

 Orontiwn and Aglaonema (Fvg. 165), in contrast with ^^z/////- 

 rimn, where the albuminous seed develops a plant of which 

 the first leaf has a distinct blade, petiole and sheath. 



These germinating plantlets show also, in several respects^ 

 that the earliest stage of the plant, or what we call *' the 

 germinating plantlet," gives a figure in a small scale of the 

 full-grown plant. Turning to some of the more interesting ^ 

 facts described above, we shall take for instance the case of 

 cotyledons with connate petioles as in DelpJUnittni nudicaule. 

 This peculiar fact was ^discovered several years ago, and is 

 mentioned by Bernhardi in a paper entitled : Ueber die merk- 

 wurdigsten Verschiedenheiten des entwickelten Pflanzen 

 Embryo und ihrem Werth fiir Systematik.* The author 

 enumerates there several plants that he has found germinat- 

 ing in this manner, namely : ** many," IJmbelliferae, for 

 instance, Fcriilago sp., Bitniiun htteiiin and P^rangos ferula- 

 cea, further *' many," Delplnniem; D. fissitm, D. ocJu^olencum 

 and partly D, pimicemn, Dodecatheon Meadia of the Primulaceae 

 and finally Leontice Altaica and Z. vesicaiHa of the Berberide.e. 



Another author w^ho has observed the same fact is A. 



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t 



I 



1 



