Yes; for although it has a second, unshapen lobe, it is truly monocotyledonous.
Well, father, how does the growth of the Mono folks go on?
In the Palm embryo are noticed bundles of fine tissue, arranged circularly from the plumula to the radicle. These tissues increase and shoot downwards. The cellular tissues of the embryo now enlarge to make room for woody fibres, which begin to appear. A rootlet is formed, and a leaf comes forth.
But how is the stem formed?
There are several crown leaves springing from the root in a circular form, each circle with its own cluster of vessels. Each leaf bud sends out a lot of woody bundles, curving downwards and outwards, which become entangled irregularly in the cellular tissue.
That is how it is that there seems no order and arrangement about the wood of a Palm or Fern tree. All is higgledy-piggledy, and the moist stuff must be collected near the circumference. But what is the soft centre made up of?
Cellular tissue, of course. You can distinguish no pith, no medullary rays, and no distinct bark, like our fruit trees.
No, I see that which ought to be the bark is a jumble of fibres, which cannot be separated from the stem as in the regular trees. I don’t like these monocotyledonous trees; they seem quite ungainly and unnatural.
And yet you have no objection to the bread of corn, the sugar of the cane, the nut of the cocoa, the date of the palm, the banana, the yam, the arrow-root——
Stop, stop, father, you have given such a list of good things, that I will never say a word against the monocotyledonous family as long as I live, though I do wish the botanists would give them a name that boys could pronounce better.