5 
more surprising since, as far back as 1809, Mirbel (1) published 
a wonderfully accurate account of the external features of the 
seedling in the latter plant ; while the extreme leaf reduction 
and other characteristics of the numerous species might have 
been expected to stimulate further investigation. 
I have examined six Asparagi other than A. officinalis,namely, 
A. comorensis ; * A. medeoloides, Thunb. ; A. plumosus, Baker ; 
A. trichophylius, Bunge ; A. tenuifolius, Lam. ; and a species, the 
seed of which was supplied to me as that of A. rugulosus, a name 
I have been quite unable to trace. The germination in all of 
these is remarkably similar, differing only in the number of 
kataphylls—each with a single axillary rhizome bud—which 
remain within the sheath of the cotyledon. The plants examined 
can in this respect be separated into two groups, those of the 
first having at the base of their primary axis one, those of the 
second two of these large underground buds which, when they 
grow, produce a part of the sympodial rhizome before forming 
epigeous stems. Since the retention of one kataphyll within the 
cotyledon sheath is characteristic of all species, and since the 
retention of two instead of one must be regarded only as a further 
specialisation along the same lines, it is no distortion of the 
facts to state that the various species of the genus show as close 
a correspondence in the features of their germination as they 
do in the anatomy of their mature organs. 
In studying any plant-embryo and following out the changes 
which take place in it as it escapes from the seed and establishes 
its independence, it is essential that the main structural peculi- 
arities of adult specimens be borne in mind, if the facts under 
observation are to be easily or thoroughly appreciated. For 
this reason the chief characteristics of the full-grown vegetative 
parts in the genus Asparagus may be briefly stated here, before 
passing on to describe in detail the type of embryo and germina- 
tion which I wish also to associate with it. Of these there are 
two, both very strongly marked and equally worthy of mention : 
first, the perennation by means of a sympodial rhizome and fleshy 
storage-roots lying at some depth in the soil ; second, the reduc- 
tion of the leaves to mere scales—or in part to thorns in the case 
of certain scrambling species such as A. Sprengeri, Regel—and 
their replacement by cladodes (Plate LIV, Fig. 16), sometimes 
remarkably leaf-like as in A. medeoloides (C, Fig. 3). The usual 
presence of long, stout, almost unbranched pull-roots, though 
less important, should not be lost sight of. 
to horticulturists 7 a ree of years, ee does not seem 
to have been eciicale described, and e been unable how or w 
it received the name A. comorensis. ae "ieconibse to the Index Kewensis, it may 
synonymous with 4. crispus, Lam., it is certainly not, as has been thought, a form of 
be 
6 Be Soke. This is clear from the fact that sek is oem tae dak oly one tare) 
kataphyll, Te ways two, 
