INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. S3 



traded new buds, their development would be little more than 

 what takes place in those phsenogamous plants, in which ad- 

 ventitious buds are formed from the roots ; and I have some- 

 times thought that I have been able to trace the same thing 

 in the common Misletoe, as to the affinities of which there can 

 be no question. If it could be proved that such genera give 

 out a true mycelium, consisting of distinct mucedinous threads, 

 uniting at length in more or less solid cords or expansions, and 

 then, without the neighbourhood of any spiral vessels, throw- 

 ing up flowering buds, it might at once be pronounced that 

 we have a very close approximation to a cryptogamic type. 

 But this is not the case. Spiral vessels may be few, but there 

 are Phsenogams of very different aspects and affinities, in which 

 they are equally or more deficient. When the flowers are 

 examined, we find a regular division of the perianth as in 

 other Endogens, a distinct pistil and anthers, ovules on parietal 

 placentffi, and a distinct embryo* not more minute than in 

 many other cases, and the division into Cotyledons not more 

 obscure than in some other parasitic genera, which have 

 evident connection with other plants which bear no relation 

 to Cryptogams. In Cytinus and its allies, we have nearly th^ 

 same condition of matters. That the seeds should be buried in 

 pulp after a time is no indication of inferiority. The true 

 disposition of these organs can, in many cases, be discovered 

 only in the earlier state of the germen. In the case of Bala/n- 

 ophorcB, though we have still a great analogy to Fungi, the 

 moment the substance of any part is divided, all doubt as to 

 any affinity ceases ; and if the stems and their connection with 

 the matrix be examined we are at once convinced that we have 

 no such type before us. A certain similarity of colour, and the 

 absence of green tints, in addition to the habit, give a fungal 



tion that plants of the same sex, where the sexes are distinct, occur in 

 patches on the matrix, is perfectly consistent with the view taken in 

 the succeeding paragraph of the text. 



* Miers asserts that there is no embryo in Triuris, but Dr. Lindley 

 very properly remarks that the body in question is rather an exalbu- 

 minous embryo, than an exembryonic albumen. Compare, however, the 

 whole of Miers' remarks in the Vegetable kingdom under Triurides. 

 3 



