26 SEEDLINGS. 
teresting in this respect. Asa rule, when the cotyledons remain 
in the seed, the hypocotyl is undeveloped and the seed remains 
on or beneath the soil; moreover, the first few leaves are reduced 
to scales, and it is not until the stem has reached a fair height that 
spreading foliage-leaves are produced. In the horse-chestnut, 
however, the hypocotyl grows considerably, carrying up the seeds 
from which the fleshy cotyledons do not escape, while the first pair 
of leaves are digitately five-foliolate, though it is hard to say 
whether, as Sir John suggests, the growth of the hypocotyl is 
acne by the high development of the first leaves, or 
r the igh development results from the elevated position in 
bie. ig t and ai 
shar peculiarities in germination are figured or 
ieastiied. ok sketch of Medicago orbicularis shows nine seedlings 
emerging from a single —— eyes _~ and twelve to sixteen 
ne fruit are not in- 
panini the competition must be 
\ equally severe in Yetragonia, wher wh 
~ the fruit also fails to burst, and t 
germination, when the radicle pierces 
the lower valve, while the upper is 
raised by growth of the hypocotyl and 
w) cotyledons. In the Brazil nut (Ber 
tholletia ‘iit and the nearly allied 
Lecythis Zabucajo, there is some doubt 
as to the nature of the fleshy undivided 
mass which fills the large seed; from 
a comparison with other genera its 
homology with the hypocotyl is in- 
ferred, the plumule being borne at one 
end and the radicle at the other; the 
the plumule and radicle emerge re- 
speedo from opposite ends of the 
eed. In Valerianew and Dipsacee, 
waiare the solitary seed never leaves 
the — the latter is pinned to the 
soi ing germination by growth of 
the padicls through the epigynous in- 
Hn a further purchase is often 
1. a swelling in the h 
Scabiosa atroprpure, Germina- cotyl (ef. fe. 1), whisk: mowers ti 
caucasica, seems to have lost 
its function, as it also penetrates the membranous involucel. The 
peg which keeps the fruit beneath the soi cabiosa australis 
vividly recalls that described by M. Flahault in seve ucur- 
itaces, and figured by Darwin in the Movements of Plants (p. 102, 
