IV. 



An Advance in our Knowledge of Seedlings.' 



■^pHE study of the germination of seeds and the resulting seedHngs 

 -*■ is not a new one. In 1693, Romberg, in the Memoirs of the 

 Paris Royal Academy of Science, published his " Experiences sur la 

 •Germination des Plantes," and from that time to the present day 

 there has been accumulating a large amount of literature in the 

 publications of the various Scientific Societies, and also in the form 

 of treatises dealing with individuals, groups, or some special aspect of 

 the subject. It was not till the beginning of the present century 

 that much attention was given to the early stages of a plant's history ; 

 but then several important works appeared. Mirbel's " Nouvelles 

 Recherches sur les Caracteres Anatomiques et Physiologiques qui 

 Distinguent les Plantes Monocotyledones des Plantes Dicotyledones," 

 in the Ann. Mus. d'Hist. Nat., vol. xiii. (1809), contains one hundred 

 and forty figures of seedlings ; and this was soon followed by his 

 " Considerations sur la Graine et la Germination." About the same 

 lime De Petit Thouars, Poiteau, and L. C. Richard were also busy ; 

 the " Analyse Botanique des Embryons Endorhizes ou Monocotyle- 

 •dones et particulierement de celui des Graminees " (Ann. Mus. 

 d'Hist. Nat., t. xvii. (181 1)) of Richard is one of the best accounts and 

 gives very good figures of the germination of grasses. They were 

 closely followed by Tittmann, whose study of the embryo and its 

 development into the plant appeared at Dresden in 181 7, and who 

 shortly after produced several other kindred papers. We must not 

 stay to review the copious but often exceedingly fragmentary and very 

 widely-scattered literature of the last seventy years ; among the most 

 useful are the numerous papers of Irmisch and Winkler in Germany, 

 and Warming of Copenhagen. 



In all this literature, however, we find no satisfactory general 

 account of the whole subject. In 1884 Klebs' " Beitragezur Morphologic 

 u. Biologie der Keimung " appeared in Pfeffer's " Untersuchungen d. 

 Botan. Institut, Tubingen " ; but this deals purely with the process of 

 germination and does not consider the resulting seedlings. Tubeuf, 



1 A Contribution to Our Knowledge of Seedlings. By the Right Hon. Sir 

 John Lubbock, Bart., M. P., F.R.S., &c., &c. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 

 Triibner & Co., 1892. 8vo. Vol. i., pp. viii. and 60S ; vol. ii., pp. 646. With 684 figures 

 in the text. Price £1 i6s. 



