of Lathrcea Squamaria, SfC. 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 

 LathrcEa, before I noticed the 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 length succeeded in 

 obtaining specimens of the Lathraa 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 reticulated 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. 



-- • 3 F 2 flowering 



