No. 457.] EMBRYO OF THE ANGIOSPERMS. 25 
with immediate denial from our knowledge of the phylogeny of 
seeds. 
In her later papers, Miss Sargant (: 03, : 04) fails to reiterate 
the above hypothesis of the reduction factor but says: “ These 
considerations have led me to look upon the Monocotyledon as 
an organism adapted primarily to a geophilous habit," and 
* Suppose a race of primitive Angiosperms to be specialized as 
geophytes. Their originally distinct cotyledons become more 
and more closely united in order to economize material. In the 
end a single cotyledonary member is formed by their complete 
fusion. A monocotyledonous race might easily be derived in 
this way from one with two cotyledons." While it is possibly 
true that the development of cotyledonary tubes has resulted in 
some dicotyledons through adaptation to a geophilous habit; 
just how this habit might have caused a fusion and subsequent 
reduction of the blades of the cotyledons, Miss Sargant does not 
make clear in any of her papers; and how the habit should 
finally force the cotyledon into the subterranean position char- 
acteristic of monocotyledons receives no explanation at all. 
Furthermore, her hypothesis would seem to require that the 
primitive angiosperms were not geophytes. It is now commonly 
held that the angiosperms are the progeny of pteridophytic 
ancestors, and it might be well to consider that the geophilous 
habit is quite prevalent among the Pteridophyta. 
Finally, the entire structure of. Miss Sargant's theory is built 
upon the assumption that cotyledons are morphologically foliage- 
leaves, But we have already found that this assumption is dis- 
proved by our knowledge of the form, structure, and develop- 
ment of cotyledons. To make her theory seem tenable, Miss 
Sargant must first make plausible this assumed premise on 
which the validity of her hypothesis so largely depends. 
RECAPITULATION. 
The great value ascribed to the embryo in the systematic 
classification of the Angiosperms early brought such embryos 
into prominence in botanical literature. Thus we find that 
angiospermic embryology embodied an extensive knowledge 
