Wer 
" 
of Lathrea Squamaria, $c. ` 401 
unfortunately are not in a perfect state, their situation and foot- 
stalks are sufficiently apparent, and refer it to the Dicotyledonous 
family*. The four scales and the radicle were perfect; but 
from the minuteness and delicacy of the embryo I could not 
satisfy myself whether the larger rudiment of the cotyledon 
consisted of the petiole only, or the decaying and collapsed 
state of the whole lobe. Those most conversant with the com- 
pound microscope can best appreciate the difficulty of correctly 
defining such minute objects amid the deceptions arising from 
the discordant reflections and evaporations of the fluid employed, 
and of the surrounding lights and shades. From viewing it in 
different directions and in a variety of lights, as well as from the 
. close resemblance of its scales in shape and texture to those of 
the perfect plant, I was however assured of its being an embryo 
Lathrea, before I noticed thé solitary tubercle near the extre- 
mity of one of its radical fibres. This determined me, in the 
absence of its more complete development, to take the sketches 
already referred to, though I lay them before the Linnean So- 
ciety with less confidence than any other in the series of draw- 
ings which elucidate this paper. 
After many ineffectual attempts, I at Nargth succeeded in 
obtaining specimens of the Lathrea with its real original root ; 
and this part so satisfactorily helps us to understand the early 
growth of the plant, that the failure of observations on the ger- 
mination of the seeds is the less to be regretted. I caused a 
circular trench, about two feet in diameter, to be dug round the 
* The oily nature of the seeds, and the uniform ligneous feticulated fibre in which 
the sap-vessels of the subterranean stem are interspersed, though without a concen- 
tric arrangement, support this view: but I do not think the sap-vessels have a spiral 
structure. "The bark consists of a simple cuticle, and a broad circle of spongy cellu- 
lar tissue, which ranges round the woody fibre, and occupies more than half of the 
radius of the stem. 
3r2 flowering 
