1 1 2 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



plants with enclosed seeds, the Monocotylse and Dicotylse, 

 it is exceedingly probable that the Dicotyledons developed 

 out of the Gnetaceae, but that the Monocotyledons developed 

 later out of a branch of the dicotyledons. 



The class of' one seed-lohed plants (Monocotylse, or 

 Monocotyledons, also called Endogense) comprises those 

 flowering plants whose seeds possess but one germ leaf or 

 seed lobe (cotyledon). Each whorl of its flower contains 

 in most cases three leaves, and it is very probable that the 

 mother plants of all Monocotyledons possessed a regular 

 triple blossom. The leaves are mostly simple, and traversed 

 by simple, straight bunches of vessels or " nerves." To this 

 class belong the extensive families of the rushes, grasses, 

 lilies, irids, and orchids, further a number of indigenous 

 aquatic plants, the water-onions, sea grasses, etc., and 

 finally the splendid and highly developed families of the 

 AroidesB and Pandanese, the bananas and palms. On the 

 whole, the class of Monocotyledons — in spite of the great 

 variety of forms which it developed, both in the tertiary 

 and the present period — is much more simply organized 

 than the class of the Dicotyledons, and its history of 

 development also ofiers much less of interest. As their 

 fossil remains are for the most part difficult to recognize, 

 it still remains at present an open question in which 

 of the three great secondary periods — the Trias, Jura, 

 or chalk period— the Monocotyledons originated. At all 

 events they existed in the chalk period as surely as did the 

 Dicotyledons. 



The second class of plants with enclosed seeds, the two 

 seed-lohed (Dicotylse, or Dicotyledons, also called Exogense) 

 presents much greater historical and anatomical interest in 



