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In some instances the complete double whorl of six, corresponding to the ancestral monocotyledonous type, has been found. This is a very curious case of systematic atavism, quite analogous to the Iris pallida abavia, previously alluded to, which likewise has six stamens, and to the cases given in a previous lecture. But for our present discussion it is of no further interest.

In the Mesa de Paja this rock contains strata of another quartzose sandstone, very fine-grained; more to the south it contains masses of brown iron, and fragments of petrified trees of the monocotyledonous family, but we did not see in it any shells. This clay, dried and hardened in the sun, splits into separate prismatic pieces with five or six sides.

In the monocotyledonous plants there is no milky juice; but the perisperm of the palms, which yields such sweet and agreeable milky emulsions, contains, no doubt, caseum.

The stem shows, at b, a little below the spike, remains of a lateral appendage, which is supposed to indicate the beginning of the spathe. The fossil has been referred to the Aroidiae, and there is every probability that it is a true member of this order. There can at least be no doubt as to the high grade of its organisation, and that it belongs to the monocotyledonous angiosperms. Mr.

The only phaenogamous plants were constitute any feature in the coal are the coniferae; monocotyledonous angiosperms appear to have been very rare, and the dicotyledonous, with one or two doubtful exceptions, were wanting.

Graphite, in primitive soils, marks the first appearance of carbon on the globe that of carbon uncombined with hydrogen. It is anterior to the period when the surface of the earth became covered with monocotyledonous plants. From the summit of those wild mountains there is a majestic view of the island of Margareta.

What is the monocotyledonous plant* that furnishes these admirable reeds? We saw on the slope of the Cerra Duida shirt-trees fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical pieces two feet in diameter, from which they peel the red and fibrous bark, without making any longitudinal incision.

But then we find that labiates and their allies among the dicotyledonous plants, and orchids among the monocotyledonous ones are especially subjected to this alteration. In both groups many genera and a long list of species could be quoted as proof.

He does not pretend to trace an exact historical series from the sea-weed to the fern, or from the fern again to the conifers and cycads, and lastly from those families to the palms and oaks, but he, nevertheless, points out that the cryptogamic forms, especially the acrogens, predominate among the fossils of the primary formations, the Carboniferous especially, while the gymnosperms or coniferous and cycadeous plants abound in all the strata, from the Trias to the Wealden inclusive; and lastly, the more highly developed angiosperms, both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous, do not become abundant until the Tertiary period.