founded on the Structure of their Seedlings . 65 
two cotyledons from which the seed-leaf of R. Ficaria has 
been formed became united by one margin only from the 
first. M. Sterckx describes such a formation in Anemone 
apeninna ( 38 , Figs. 76, 77). An abnormal seedling of Ranun- 
culus repens in which the cotyledons are partly united by one 
margin is figured by Lord Avebury (Lubbock, 30 , vol. i. 
p. 90). I have found the cotyledons of R. Chius to be so 
united in the only three seedlings I have seen, but in no case 
more than halfway up the petioles. 
Sections through one such seedling of R. Chius show that 
the vascular structure is by no means unilateral at the base 
of the cotyledons. They are united into a shallow cup round 
the plumular bud, and a trace from each enters the short 
hypocotyl at opposite extremities of a diameter. The 
transition to a root-structure follows the usual Ranunculaceous 
type (Diagram IX). 
The same is true of Anemone nemorosa, in which the hypo- 
gaeic cotyledons have a false appearance of being inserted 
laterally so long as they are held together by the seed-coats. 
The few diagrams given by M. Sterckx of the vascular structure 
in A. apennina suggest that it may possess characters really 
intermediate between the usual type and that of Ranunculus 
Ficaria . 
Part III. General Considerations on the Origin 
of Monocotyledons. 
In the first Part of this paper I have given a full abstract of 
my observations on the vascular symmetry of Monocotyle- 
donous seedlings, and have attempted to show that the facts 
justify the following conclusions 
The vascular symmetry characteristic of the seedling in the 
monotypic genus Anemarrhena represents a type which is 
comparatively primitive among the Liliaceae. For many 
types of seedling structure found within that family can 
be shown with great probability to be derived from it, and 
the other types described are either clearly much modified by 
their environment, or so isolated systematically from the rest 
F 
