240 



PRINCIPLES OF PLANT-TERATOLOGY. 



exists, and at the other end it is absent, although 

 several foliage-leaves are present. But if, on the 

 other hand, the anaphytic organization, such as we see 

 it in the above seedlings, is primitive, the stages by 

 which the Dicotyledonous type of organization (with 

 such a marked contrast between stem and leaf) has 

 been evolved are quite easy to follow. If the phyton- 

 theory be held, then it is a priori conceivable that the 

 Monocotyledonous type of organization has been 

 derived by reduction from the Dicotyledonous one ; 

 but if it is admitted (as it is on this theory) that the 

 organization exhibited by the above mentioned seed- 

 lings was once the primitive one for all Angiosperms, 

 then it seems that by far the most plausible view is to 

 regard the organization of these seedlings as primitive 

 now rather than as representing an exact imitation 

 (arrived at by the process of degeneration) of the 

 primitive organization of the past. The majority of 

 botanists hold that the seedling stages represent those 

 of the phytogeny ; why should an exception be made 

 to this almost universally accepted rule in the case of 

 the Monocotyledons ? Moreover, one would never 

 expect to see degeneration of embryonic and seedling 

 structures as a universal feature for a whole class of 

 otherwise perfectly organized plants. Monocotyledons 

 are not degenerate. 



Such arguments as the above have never been 

 refuted by the upholders of the modern theory; they 

 appear never even to have been thought of. Surely it 

 would have been better to have taken all facts and 

 arguments into consideration before setting forth such 

 a tremendous and far-reaching generalisation as that 

 Monocotyledons have been derived from Dicotyledons 

 by reduction. 



If what has been said above be true, there must 

 probably reside within the plant a natural tendency 

 to reassert, under certain conditions, the primitive 

 terminal position of the leaf. And the cases of 

 abnormal terminal leaves above cited may represent an 



