jgQ ON TtTE, STRUCtURE AND CLASSIFICATION OF SEEJ)S, 



cause of many mistakes concerning tlie radicle, which 1 

 mentioned in my last. The false grasses, (such us the cy^ 

 perus, scirpusy carex, &c.) belong to the first, as well as 

 wheat and rye ; but barley, oats, &c., to this. When my 

 plan is more perfected fif approveuj 1 hope to give a list, 

 that will more exactly point out the arrangement, 

 .'■:h class. The last class 1 have called the mixed or compound seeds* 



Mixed,orcom-ggg pj^ yj^ |j^.^ 3^ jj. includes most of the water plants, 

 the spice, cotfee, and some cotton plants. J have not yet 

 been able to acquire foreign seeds sufficient to enable me to 

 arrange it with the perspicuity I would wifh ; but it has 

 notwithstanding some striking features, fully capable of 

 marking and distinguishing it from the other classes: for it 

 has the large and prominent heart of the first class, with the 

 seed leaf of the second ; it has many teats, and a roomy 

 rece»:s, for the formation of the cotyledons. I have no 

 doubt, that many seeds I am yet unacquainted with will 

 , rank in this class. The bladder tree appertains to it, and a 

 curious plant brbught me by a gentleman from the East 

 Indies, who was one of those engaged in the trigonometri- 

 cal sufvey there, and who fonnd it in the wildest part of 

 the peninsula, that few but themselves ever crossed. 1 have 

 not been able to procure Rumphius, to seek it there ; and 

 can find it only in Gerard, who calls it •' arboris lanifera 

 siliqua." Supposing it little known, I have selected it as 

 an example of this peculiarly formed corculum^ well mark- , 

 ing the class, and shall describe the plant also. It has a 

 pod six inches long, two and a half wide, full of the most 

 beautiful cotton, weighing nearly a quarter of a pound, and 

 having within the seed vessel a number of triangular black 

 seeds, rounded at the edges. Tn dissecting this seed, a 

 large heart is found, rather larger in proportion than in the 

 first class, and having two seed leaves of great length, curl- 

 ed up very thick, and the intermediate part pf| the seed 

 filled with a substance like flower. On stretching the co- 

 tyledons, they measured near an inch and half, and in some 

 seeds 1 have found two cotyledons above: and in most seeds 

 of this class there are from/o«r to six. This tree is a large 

 one, and has leaves very long and slender ; the outside rind 

 is thick and spongy. The flowers I have not seen, nor have 



I received 



