Ives on a Species of Limosella. 75 



In the paper written by Mr. Nuttall is the following query : 

 '• Does this plant, with a lateral mode of growth and alternate 

 leaves, germinate with two cotyledons ?" The following 

 observations were made in answer to this question. In the 

 ivinter of 1816-17 this plant was kept in a situation exposed 

 to severe frost ; yet whenever the weather became warm 

 for two or three days, it became quite green, but for the last 

 winter there was no appearance of life in the plant. In 

 March 1818, the vessel in which the limosella had been pre- 

 served for two summers preceding, and in which were a great 

 quantity of seeds, was exposed in a warm situation to the sun. 

 There was no appearance of vegetation until the last of March, 

 when were observed several cylindrical leaves, some of them 

 evidently arose from bulbs which had formed the last sum- 

 mer, on account of the dryness of its situation, which fre- 

 quently occurs when plants are removed from a moist to a dry 

 situation. In other instances single cylindrical leaves arose 

 from the earth, where no bulbs were to be found ; these cylin- 

 drical leaves were thought to arise from seeds, which, if it was 

 a fact, would prove that the plant vegetated with but one 

 cotyledon- In a short time the vessel was crowded with the 

 seeds of the limosella raised by the cotyledons. These were 

 carefully observed, and in every instance, when the coat of 

 the seed was cast off, two linear cotyledons were observed, 

 soon a cylindrical leaf arose from the centre of the cotyle- 

 dons, and when this leaf had grown to the length of half an 

 inch, a leaf of a similar kind arose laterally to a line made by 

 the first leaf and the cotyledons. 



From the facts above stated, it is thought to be proved 

 that the limosella vegetates with two cotyledons. This was 

 the fact in every instance where the husk of the seeds was 

 obviously attached to the cotyledons, and in the few instances 

 where the plants appeared to vegetate with but one cotyledon, 

 it is probable that it arose from a bulb or some portion of the 

 old plant, in which life had not been extinguished, during 

 the past winter, which was made more probable by the fact 

 that several of the leaves arose obviously from bulbs. This 



