366 Mr. R. A. Salisbuky on the Germination 



seeds had ceased to swell, apparently from their earliest formation, 

 they adhered together to something like a central placenta: in 

 all the other capsules I found them loose, and suspect the pla- 

 centa had been absorbed by the liquid remaining in the capsule. 

 A very minute hilum remained always visiljle, and the three- 

 radiated mark originating there appears to me to be only three 

 stronger ribs of the reticulated cuticle of the seed. 



The germination of this plant approaches much nearer to that 

 of Dicotylcdones than to that of Monocotyledones, especially if that 

 part which Brotero calls viteUus be considered a radicle. I am, 

 however, inclined to think that it is true albumen, though it does 

 adhere to the embryo; and till we can succeed in getting plenty 

 of perfect seeds, or to catch them in a still earlier stage of germi- 

 nation than the first figure I now send you represents, this point 

 will remain dubious. 



In the mean while, a comparison of the seeds of this Li/copo- 

 dium with those of Isoctes and Filitlaria, which they exactly re- 

 semble, will assist us; and as Brotero says that he has seen the 

 part he desciibes for stigma " liquore nnctitoso diutissime perfu- 

 sitm," I have little hesitation in believing that it is so: before I 

 read his account, 1 took the suture at the top, where the capsule 

 afterwards splits, for the stigma, and it is not very unlike the 

 stigma of StijUdium. 



I remain, &c. 



IS, Queen-Street, Edge ware- Road, R. .*\ . SALISBURY. 



June 3, 1817. 



RErE- 



