SEEDLING STRUCTURE IN THE LEGUMINOS. 3 
others, we possess a considerable insight into the seedling structure of the 
Gymnosperms ; but the Angiosperms present a broad field of investigation, 
which is quite insufficiently explored. 
The comprehensive researches of Goldsmith (1876), Gérard (1881), 
Dangeard (1889), and Chauveaud (1911), and the more special investigations 
of Dodel (1872), Sterckx (1900), Sargant (1903), Wright (1904), A. W. 
Hill (1906), T. G. Hill (1906-1908), Brandza (1909), Smith (1909), and 
de Fraine (1910), among other authors, have elicited much important infor- 
mation on the processes which occur in the transition region of the Angiosperm 
seedling. The extended researches of Tansley and Thomas (1904, 1906, 
1907) are not yet published in full, but promise to throw much light on the 
problems of seedling anatomy. Except in Miss de Fraine's work on the 
C'actaceze, however, little has been done towards correlating the various types 
of seedling structure with other vegetative features. 
From the standpoint of phylogeny, as well as from that of the better 
comprehension of anatomy, it is clearly important to determine, with as much 
precision as possible, what relations exist between the seedling structure and 
the size, form, habit, and general morphology of the species. It is with this 
object in view that the present investigation has been undertaken, at the 
suggestion of Mr. A. G. Tansley, to whom I owe a deep debt of gratitude for 
help and inspiration. The Leguminose were selected for study because of the 
great variety they display in the habit of the mature plant and in the external 
characters of the seedlings. 
The following paper is divided into three parts :— 
(A) A detailed deseription with figures of the anatomical features exhibited 
in the transition region of a number of species of Léguminose ; 
supplemented by histological and other details when occasion demands. 
(B) A classified summary of the information at present available on the chief 
anatomical characters of the seedlings of Leguminose. 
(€) A general discussion of the relations between seedling anatomy and 
other vegetative features, together with further facts bearing on the 
subject. 
METHODS. 
Most of the seedlings investigated were grown from seeds supplied by 
Mr. Irwin Lynch, Curator of the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, to whom I am 
deeply grateful for his unstinted kindness in obtaining seeds from many other 
sources. I am also much indebted to Mr. F. R. Parnell, of Mozafterpore, 
and Mr. F. W. South, of Barbados, for contributions of seeds. 
The seeds were sown in soil at a suitable depth, and were for the most part 
germinated in a greenhouse. In the case of “hard” seeds, which are so 
B2 
