7 
difficulty, at its base (Plate LIII, Figs.2and 7). So far as my in- 
vestigations have gone, the vascular system of the embryo (Fig. 2) 
seems very variable in certain respects, not only in different, but 
also to a less degree in the same, species. Scholz (5B), referring 
to A. officinalis, mentions that three vascular-bundles traverse 
the cotyledon ; while Miss Sargant (7) has observed in A. officinalis 
and A. decumbens an increase in the number of xylem strands in 
the hypocotyl. This is due, she states, to plumular traces which 
in these cases are similar to, and behave in the same way as, the 
cotyledonary ones during the transition to the root. In the 
cotyledons of those Asparagi which I have examined three 
Fic. 2.—Asparagus rugulosus. A, Radial longitudinal section of the embryo, 
t . B, C, D, Transverse sections of the same through 
the regions indicated. In the specimen illustrated the cotyled y xylems 
were not augmented on passing into the root-stele. Cot., cotyledon ; Hyp., 
bundles occurred only in two—A. plumosus and A. trichophyllus 
(Plate LIII, Fig. 1)—though not constantly in the latter plant, 
four being also met with. In A. rugulosus (Fig. 2) the number 
was usually four, occasionally five as illustrated ; while in A. 
medeoloides, only a few specimens of which were cut transversely 
however, five bundles were observed. Counting the protoxylem 
patches in the central stele of the primary root, which, owing to 
the extreme shortness of the hypocotyl, forms nearly the whole 
of that portion of the embryo lying below the plumule, and com- 
paring their number with that of the bundles in the cotyledon, 
it was found that in some cases this was the same, while in others 
