u 
Ives on a Species of Limoselia. 78 
in the paper written by Mr. Nuttall is the following query, 
* “Does this plant, with a lateral mode of growth and alternate 
leaves, germinate with two cotyledons?” The following 
observations were made in answer to this question. In the 
winter of 1816-17 this plant was kept in a situation exposed 
to severe frost; yet, whenever the weather became warm 
for two or three days, it became quite green, but for the last 
winter there was no appearance of life in the plant. In 
March, 1818, the vessel in which the limosella had been pre- 
served for two summers preceding,-and in which were a great 
quantity of seeds, was exposed in a warm situation to the sun. 
There was no appearance of vegetation until the last of March, 
when were obseryed several cylindrical leaves, some of them 
evidently arose from bulbs which had formed the last sum- 
mer, on account of the dryness of its situation, which fre- 
quently occurs when plants are removed from a moist to a dry 
Situation. In other instances single cylindrica] leaves arose 
from the earth, where no bulbs were to be found; these cylin- 
drical leaves were thought to arise from seeds, which, if it was 
a fact, would prove that the plant vegetated with but one 
cotyledon. In a short time the vessel was crowded with the 
seeds of the limosella raised by the cotyledons. These were 
carefully observed, and in every instance, when the coat of 
the seed was cast off, two linear cotyledons were observed, 
Soon a cylindrical leaf arose from the centre of the cotyle- 
dons, and when this leaf had grown to the length of half an 
inch, a leaf of a similar kind arose laterally to a line made by 
the first leaf and the cotyledons. 
From the facts above stated, it is thought to be proved, 
that the limosella vegetates with two cotyledons. ‘This was 
the fact in every instance where the husk of the seeds was 
obviously attached to the cotyledons, and in the few instances 
where the plants appeared to vegetate with but one cotyledon, 
it is probable that it arose from a bulb or some portion of the 
old plant, in which life had not been extinguished, during 
the past Winter, which was made more probable by the fact, 
that several of the leaves arose obviously from bulbs. This 
