Observations on a Species of Limosella. 329 
to the receipt of my letter, and that they had no question on the 
subject of the generic character, but that it would probably prove 
to be a new species. 
In the Transactions of the Medico-Physical Society of New- 
York, p. 440, it is described under the name of Limosella subu- 
lata. A description of the plant was published about the same 
time, by Mr. Nuttal, in the Journal of the Academy of Natural 
Seiences of Philadelphia, (see vol. i. No. VI. page 115.) In the 
paper written by Mr. Nuttal, is the following query: ‘‘ Does this 
plant, with a lateral mode of growth and alternate leaves, ger- 
minate with two cotyledons ?” 
The following observations were made in answer to this ques- 
tion. In the winter of 1316-17, this plant was kept in a situ- 
ation 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 Limosel/a had been preserved 
for two summers preceding, and in which there were a great 
quantity of seeds, was exposed in a warm situation to the sun. 
There was no appearance of vegetation till the last day of March, 
when were observed several cylindrical leaves ; some of them evi- 
dently arose from bulbs, which had formed last summer on ac- 
count of the dryness of its situation, which frequently occurs 
when plants are removed from a moist to a dry situation. In 
other instances single cylindrical leaves arose from the earth 
where no bulbs were to be found; these cylindrical 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 ob- 
served; soon a cylindrical leaf arose from the centre of the co- 
tyledons ; aud 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 at- 
tached to the cotyledons; and in the few instances where the plant 
appeared to vegetate with one cotyledon, it is probable 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 uf the leaves arose ob- 
viously from bulbs. This Limosella, with its congeners, hence 
will take its place in the natural order of Jussieu, Lysimachie. 
LVI. On 
