1904] BILLINGS—TILLANDSIA USNEOIDES 109 
seedlings were found either still attached to the capsules, or else 
hanging to the scaly stems and leaves of the mother plants. In every 
case the seed coat still adhered to the base, or root-end of the seed- 
lings, so as to enable the coma to keep them from falling to the ground, 
which they certainly would have done without this provision. When 
it is remembered that the capsules dehisced in March, and the seed- 
lings were found early in April, it will be seen that germination fol- 
lowed dehiscence quite closely. Of course the early growth was 
attained at the expense of the endosperm, but when it was exhausted, 
continued growth, which would naturally be expected from healthy 
looking seedlings, failed to occur. Material gathered in the summer 
and autumn yielded the usual crop of seedlings, but in no case were 
any found that were larger than those found in April. Festoons 
gathered the middle of January, nearly a year after the capsules 
opened, had numerous little seedlings hanging to them, all healthy 
looking, but no larger than any observed before them. It is expected 
that when the warm weather of spring comes, when Tillandsia puts 
forth its most vigorous growth, the seedlings also will increase in size. 
The question naturally arises here, why Tillandsia seedlings are not 
to be seen in all stages developing into mature plants, counting of 
course those which germinated previous years. As such is not the ~ 
case, it can only be conjectured that, as the spring of 1903 was an 
unusually rainy one, the conditions for germination were especially 
favorable. 
Seedlings exhibiting various stages in germination were imbedded 
in paraffin and longitudinally sectioned. In the earliest stage (jig. 
45) the first leaf shows only a slight growth, the stem apex is still 
undifferentiated, while from the axil of the ridge of tissue that enclosed 
the stem apex, or else from its inner surface, a pair of organs have 
arisen. It is believed that the presence of these organs throws some 
light upon the morphological nature of the ridge of tissue. If a sec- 
tion is made through the nodal region of a mature plant (jig. 49), 
it will be seen that the leaf sheath which encloses the lateral shoot 
and main axis is double. The doubling is not due to splitting of a 
tissue once entire, but to bifurcation. A section through a very young 
sheath (jig. 49a) reveals an outgrowth, one to several cells in extent, 
from which a double layer of cells arises. These soon separate to 
