Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/320

 290 neither rises out of the ground, nor performs the proper functions of a Cotyledon, for what these plants produce is, from the first, a real leaf; or, if the plant has no leaves, the rudiment of a stem, as in Cuscuta. In either case, the part produced is solitary, never in pairs; hence Gærtner was led to reckon Cyamus Nelumbo, ''Exot. Bot.'' t. 31, 32, among the monocotyledonous plants, the body of its seed remaining in the earth, and the leaves springing one at a time from the Embryo, just as in the Date Palm, Wheat, Barley, &c.

The Seed-lobes of Mosses, according to the observations of Hedwig, Fund, part 2. t. 6; are above all others numerous and subdivided, as well as most distinct from the proper leaves; so that these plants are very improperly placed by authors among such as have no Cotyledons, a measure originating probably in theory and analogical reasoning rather than observation.

Albumen, the White, is a farinaceous, fleshy, or horny substance, which makes up the chief bulk of some seeds, as Grasses,