1912~\ Live Oak and White Oak Seedlings 37 



By examining other acorns but those of the live-oak you will 

 be able to find out what by my description is meant." 



Mr. Thomas Meehan, a well known horticulturist of that 

 time, also gave an account of the live-oak seedling, before the 

 Philadeli^hia Academy of ISTatural Science. In the Society's 

 Transactions for the year 1880, pages 128 and 129, we find 

 the following : 



"Mr. Thomas Meehan referred to some interesting facts in 

 the germination of Quercus virens, as brought to his attention 

 by W. St. J. Mazyck, of Georgetown, S. C. It was generally 

 known that in this species the cotyledons did not divide into 

 two lobes as usual in acorns, but seemed to be one solid mass, 

 without any trace of division. In germination, however, two 

 petioles were developed as in other acorns, but instead of these 

 being very short, indeed nearly sessile, as in the ordinary white- 

 oak, they were produced apparently in the much advanced 

 specimen sent by Mr. Mazyck to one and one-half inches in 

 length before the plumule and hypocotyledenary portions of 

 the embryo commenced their growth. In respect to the latter, 

 a small ovate striate tuber, apparently, as one might judge from 

 the shrivelled specimens on hand, nearly one-fourth the size 

 of the acorn, was formed, and from the tuber the rad- 

 icle proceeded, and, afterwards the plumule on its upward 

 growth 



"Mr. Edward Potts, at the request of Mr. Meehan, had made 

 sections of both the acorns and the spindle-shaped radicle, 

 with the results of finding the cell structure of the latter an 

 almost exact counterpart of that of the nut: i. e., sub-spherical 

 ■cells of uniform size, gorged with starch grains. So similar 

 were they that it would be nearly impossible for an observer 

 to say which 'he was examining but for the cortical tissue sur- 

 rounding the root. It seemed that the food supply of the young 

 plant had been thus withdrawn from a portion exposed to hot 

 sun and drying winds to be protected by the earth and in the 

 direct line of growth. E^o line of specialized cells could be 

 discovered in the sections of the nut, indicating the possibility 

 of separation as in other species into two cotyledons; so that 

 to all intents and purposes it might be called monocotyledon- 

 ous." 



