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THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



for several inches. The radicle elongates m the same direction. 

 . . . The place directly above the puuctam saliens, where de- 

 velopment is going on [I. e. the base of the cotyledonary sheath 

 surrounding the plumule] swells and takes on a bulb form." 



In 1840 a Dutch botanist, H. C. van Hall {Tijdsch. Nat. Geschied. 

 vii. pp. 140-164), gave a full and well-illustrated account of the 

 fruit, seed, and method of germination in Crimun capense. He takes 

 the same view of the structure of the bulbiform seed as did Richard 

 (see p. 146) ; his figures (fig. iv.) show well the elongation of the 

 cotyledonary sheath carrying downwards the small radicle, the 



Fig. iii. — Crinum longifolium Thunb. (AmanjUis longifoUa L.). 1. Seed 

 germinating — a, seed ; r, radicle ; c, cotyledon ; &, first leaf ; sli, base of sheath 

 of cotyledon which is already thickening to form the outermost bulb-scale, 

 inside sli is the plumule. 2. Sucker, s, formed at the tip of the cotyledon by 

 which the nourishment in the endosperm is absorbed for the use of the 

 seedling. 3. Section of germinating seed showing the sucker, -s, of the cotyledon 

 lying in the endosperm. 



From a drawing by K. A. Salisbury. 



upper end of the cotyledon remaining in the seed to form a swollen 

 sucker by means of which the nourishment in the endosperm is 

 gradually absorbed. The plumule is surrounded by the base of the 

 cotyledonary sheath, where the bulb very soon begins to develop, 

 the sheath forming the outermost scale. His figures also illustrate 

 the different length which the cotyledonary sheath attains under 

 different circumstances. In one case where a seed was allowed to 

 germinate at the edge of a board, and not supplied either with food 

 or moisture, the radicle was carried vertically downwards by a 

 cotyledonary growth six times the largest diameter of the seed in 

 length, and still showed no trace of the leaf succeeding the cotyledon. 

 Later workers enable us to reconcile the differing statements as 

 to the exact nature of the fleshy mass surrounding the embryo. In 

 1857 Henri Baillon [BulL Soc. Bot. Fr, iv. p. 1020) showed that in 



