262 Delfhinium Nudicaule, 



ing autumn, and came up very freely this spring, began to flower in 

 June, and has continued in succession until now ; for, after a stem has 

 grown to perfection several others start from the base, and flower again, 

 and so on. Tl>e old plant which flowered last year grew up again 

 this spring from the slender, fleshy, tuberous roots, and continues to 

 flower. 



" I believe it hardy, for the only protection it had was a board and a 

 few leaves, which did not keep the fi'ost out." 



A remarkable characteristic of this plant is described in the follow- 

 ing note from Dr. Gray, Professor of Botany in Harvard University, 

 which we find in the Gardener's Chronicle, and which is none the worse 

 for having crossed the Atlantic and returned, though we could wish that 

 it had been first published nearer home. " Has any one noticed the 

 striking instance of hypocotyledonary germination which is exhibited, 

 I believe, uniformly by Delphinium nudicaule ? You have the plant 

 in cultivation, and it has lately been figured in the Botanical Magazine. 

 It is remarkable as being a red-flowered Delphinium. D. cardinale^ 

 early figured in the Botanical Magazine, we here suppose to be only a 

 variety of it — at least the Californian botanists are unable to discriminate 

 two species. The germination of D. cardinale should be looked to in 

 this connection. Yet for all I know the peculiarity may be shared by 

 other or all tuberous-rooted species. My attention was called to this 

 peculiai'ity by the gardener of our botanic garden, Mr. Guerineau. In 

 germination the radicle lengthens in the usual way, and raises a pair of 

 ovate cotyledons, which attain full development. But no plumule ap- 

 pears between them ; so that the primary axis consists only of the first, 

 or hypocotyledonary internode, and this moreover has only a transient 

 existence. But at the very junction of this internode with the proper 

 primary root, i. e., at the true collum, a thickening soon takes place, 

 originating the tuberous root ; and from this, at the very base of the 

 radicle, or, -as we should rather say, caulicle, and by its side, springs a 

 long-petioled leaf, and soon a second one, and so on, establishing the 

 vegetation of the plant, the primary axis taking no further part, and 

 soon dying away. I have a dim memory of having read an account of 

 something like this in some other Ranunculaceous plant, but I cannot 

 recall it. A. Gray, Cambridge^ Mass" 



[Irmisch in the " Bot. Zeit.," January 1856, describes and figures the 

 germination in various species of Ranunculaceae, and some of which 

 resemble the Delphinium above mentioned. A translation 01 Irmisch's 

 paper will be found in " Ann. Sc. Nat.," ser. 4, t. 6, p. 27. Eds 

 Gai'dener's Chronicle.] 



