THE BULBIFORM SEEDS OF CERTAIN AMARYLLIDE^ 



373 



of the structure of the seeds and the early stages of germination. 

 He describes an integument (a sort of brownish epidermis, thick, 

 dry, and peehng irregularly) enclosing a thick cellular endosperm, 

 containing no vessels and becoming greenish towards the exterior, 

 and a small embryo near the base of the endosperm. In germi- 

 nation the radicle makes its way out and grows downwards, soon 

 drawing from the grain the cotyledon, which then elongates. 



From the above notes we see that some discrepancy existed in 

 the views held as to the nature of the fleshy substance surrounding 

 the embryo. Brown finds that, in certain cases at any rate, it 

 contains vascular tissue ; Salisbury also says that spiral vessels 

 enter at the hilum, but are chiefly distributed along the margin of 

 the fleshy mass, and that the great mass consisted of a thick fleshy 

 coat. Richard, on the other hand, in the species of Crimim which 

 he examined, refers the fleshy mass to endosperm. 



Fig. ii. — Crinum longifolium Thunb. {Amaryllis lonrjlfolia L.). Seeds 

 germinating in a capsule which has been preveiited from opening. 1. The 

 radicle /• of seed a has approached seed h. 2. The radicle and cotyledon of a 

 have pierced h\ the plumule, which has been carried through in the base of 

 the cotyledonary sheath sh, is developing, the first leaf I having already 

 emerged. The long cotyledon c still communicates with the seed from which 

 it is absorbing nourishment. A precisely similar seedling is developing from h. 

 3. The same as 2, but the seed h has been cut open. Note at h the swollen 

 sucker formed by the apex of the cotyledon. 



From a drawing by R. A. Salisbury. 



The germination of the seed as figured by Salisbury (fig. iii.) 

 and Richard, and referred to by others, follows a course common to a 

 number of monocotyledons. F. E. L. Fischer, for instance (in his 

 Beitrag. z. hotan. System : die Existenz d. Monocotijledonen und d. 

 Poly cotyledon en betrefend, published at Zurich in 1812), classes, 

 from the point of view of their germination, Crinum and Amaryllis 

 with fleshy seeds, with Phcenix and other Palms, &c., and says: 

 ** The peripheral end of the cotyledon with the contained embryo 

 protrudes from the seed and elongates worm-like more or less, often 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 39. [Nov. 1901.] 2 e 



