ICIENTIFIC NEVJ^. gST" 



mjirk of any kind be made at equal heights on the'lWo 

 branches of the geroie, the mark nearest the radicle will 

 rise alone, if the plant received no aliment but from the 

 juices of the Earth ; on the contrary, if it were nourished 

 solely by the albumen of the seed, the mark on the pla- 

 mule would rise above the other: and lastly, the mar&s 

 would rise pretty equally, if both the ground and the seed 

 concurred in the developement of the germe. It is the latter 

 phenomenon that takes place; and it ceases when the albu- 

 men is eniirelj' absorbed : the young plant has then strength 

 enough, to derive from the ground or the atmosphere the , 

 nourishment it thenceforward requires. 



This paper is acconrtpanied with interesting observations Germinatioa 

 on the germination of asparagus, and on the manner in °f ^'P*'^"^* 

 which the leaves of this plant, at first ensheathed like all 

 those of the monocotyledons, become, by the grov/th of 

 the stalk, lateral and opposite, and afterward lateral and 

 alternate. 



In another paper Mr. Mirbel has examined the germina- and of thewa. 

 tion of the nelumbium. Botanists were not unanimous re- ^^^ "^y* 

 specting the class, to which this plant should be referred, or 

 the nature of the two fleshy lobes, from between which it 

 springs. Some, observing no radicles developed in the ger* 

 mination of this plant, suppose it to be destitute of them : 

 some consider these lobes as roots ; others as peculiar or- 

 gans analogous to the vitellus, Mr. M. has endeavoured to 

 remove these doubts by his dissections. In the first place 

 he finds in the nelumbium all the characters of a plant 

 with more than one cotyledon ; he next finds in the lobes 

 vessels analogous to those of cotyledons; and at the junc- 

 ture of the lobes he observes other vessels, uniting in the 

 same manner as those that are characttiristic of the radicles 

 in embryos furnished with them. Hence he concludes, that 

 the water lily does not differ essentially from the other plants 

 of its class. 



Mr. Correa, while he agrees with Mr. M. in considering The lobss of 

 the nelumbium as a dicotyledon, differs from him on the ^^*,^^®'^1^^ 

 nature of the lobes. He thinks, with Gaertner, that they the vitellus. 

 have a great analogy to the vitellus, and he compares them 

 with the fleshy tubercles of the roots of orchis. Plants he 



observes 



