324 



OX SEEDLINGS 



the dorsal suture, and shallowly grooved or not in that part, gla- 

 brous, each cell one- or two- (generally two-) seeded, dehiscing at 

 the dorsal suture and separating or breaking away from the placental 

 column. 



Seed in the early stage forming a little curved or reniform papilla 

 suspended by a colourless hilum, increasing greatly in length and 

 breadth but not thickness, till it becomes an oblong, flattened body. 

 Growth continues in the middle and dorsal region, but not at the 

 edges, until the seed assumes an oblong- sphaeroid form, peltate on 

 the funicle and concave on the ventral aspect, completely enclosing 

 and hiding the colourless funicle, transversely and shallowly grooved 

 towards the margin, pale amber-coloured or nearly white, glabrous ; 

 micropyle at the upper end of the seed and external to the ventral 

 cavity ; funicle stout, colourless, obliquely ascending, enclosed by the 

 involute edges of the seed ; hilum ventral 

 in the cavity. 



Endosperm in the mature seed co- 

 pious, fleshy, firm, white. 



Embryo small, slightly curved in con- 

 formity with the curvature of the seed, 

 embedded in the centre of the endosperm 

 at the upper end of the seed, colour- 

 less ; cotyledons oblong, obtuse, entire, 

 trinerved, plano-convex ; radicle terete, 

 obtuse, a little longer than the cotyle- 

 dons, close to the micropyle at the upper 

 end of the seed but completely surrounded 

 by the endosperm. 



Germination. Seeds sown on the 

 29th of June commenced to germinate 

 on the 7th of December. 

 An early stage (fig. 565, A) shows the radicle pushed out from the 

 seed and furnished with root-hairs ; the ventral cavity of the seed 

 is very conspicuous. 



Three days later (fig. 565, E) the hypocotyl is straight, thinly 

 hairy at the very top and on the petioles of the cotyledons. The 

 latter are trinerved, glabrous except the petioles, and have nearly 

 got out of the membranous, now empty testa. 



When the seed is moderately well buried in the soil, the radicle 

 pushes out first and fixes the plant in the soil, then the hypocotyl 

 arches and in straightening pulls the cotyledons out of the seed 

 (fig. 565, C). 



Two days later (fig. 565, D) the cotyledons get clear out of the 



FIG. 566. 



Veronica hedercefolia. 

 Seedling, nat. size. 



