Abstract
IT must be evident to those who heard my paper on “Adnation in Coniferæ” at the Chicago meeting of the Association that the observations there detailed could scarcely be accounted for, if the belief be true which is generally held by botanists, that the leaf originates at the node from which it seems to spring. It is not, however, an object with me to attack existing theories, or establish new ones, but simply to present facts as I see them. The origin of the leaf will no doubt prove a question which will in time take care of itself. But this generalisation cannot be avoided by the readers of that paper, that the whole plant is originally a unity; and that the subsequent formation of elementary organs, and their complete development, or absorption into one another, is the result of varying phases of nutrition. The leaves in Coniferse were found to be free or united with the stem in proportion to the vigour of the central axis. Following up the subject, I now offer some facts which will show that all seeds are primarily monocotyledonous; and that division is a subsequent act, depending on circumstances which do not exist at the first commencement of the seed growth.
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The Monocotyledon the Universal Type of Seeds * . Nature 5, 153 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/005153a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/005153a0