3606 Mr. R. A. SALISBURY on the Germination 
seeds had ceased to swell, apparently from their earliest formation, 
they adhered together to something like a central placenta: in 
all the other capsules I found them loose, and suspect the pla- 
centa had been absorbed by the liquid remaining in the capsule. 
A very minute hilum remained always visible, and the three- 
radiated mark originating there appears to me to be only three 
stronger ribs of the reticulated cuticle of the seed. 
The germination of this plant approaches much nearer to that 
of Dicotyledones than to that of Monocotyledones, especially if that 
part which Brotero calls vitellus be considered a radicle. I am, 
however, inclined to think that it is true albumen, though it does | 
adhere to the embryo; and till we can succeed in getting plenty . 
of perfect seeds, or to catch them in a still earlier stage of germi- 
nation than the first figure. I now send you represents, this point 
will remain dubious. au 
In the mean while, a comparison of the seeds of this Lycopo- 
dium with those of Isoetes and Pilularia, which they exactly re- 
semble, will assist us ; and as Brotero says that be has.seen the 
easy he describes for stigma ** liquore unctuoso diutissime perfu- 
sum,” I have little hesitation in believing that itis so: before I 
read his account, I took the suture at the i top, where the capsule 
afterwards splits, for the stigma, and it is not very unlike the 
stigma of Stylidium. 
I remain, &c. 
8, Queen-Street, Edgeware-Road, R. A. SALISBURY. 
June 3, 1817. 
REFE- 
