24 A. Gray— Germination of the genus Megarrhiza. 
This, therefore, is a case in which long petioles to the cotyle- 
dons (of which there is no appearance in the seed), connate into 
one body, are developed and greatly length- 
ened in place of the radicle, which is thus 
. simulated. It is the same as in Delphinium 
\\ nudicaule of California, and some other spe- 
\\ cies; only in that genus the cotyledons expand 
} and become foliaceous. In the horse-chestnut 
/ petioles are also developed to the cotyledons 
to a moderate extent, but without union, 
(see Gray’s First Lessons, fig. 24), thus 
pushing the radicle and plumule well out 
of the firm seed-coat, in which the very 
heavy and fleshy cotyledons remain ; and the 
radicle itself, as in the pea, does not further 
lengthen. In Lpomea leptophylla the radicle 
remains in like manner short, while petioles 
to the (here foliaceous) cotyledons develope 
to a great length, bringing these separately 
out of the ground, and the plumule between 
follows later. 
Botanists on the Pacific coast are earnestly requested to 
examine the germination of all the species of Megarrhiza, and to 
compare them with the figures and description here given. At 
least three species should be met with near San Francisco, and 
in neighboring parts of California. According to the characters 
assigned by Mr. Watson in the Botany of California, JZ, Cal- 
fornica should be known by its obovoid seeds, of less than an 
inch in length, with a small hilum at the narrow base: 
Marah, by its more numerous seeds horizontally imposed in a 
large fruit (of four inches in length), each seed roundish and 
depressed, flattened, an inch in diameter and about half as 
thick, with a prominent lateral hilum. J/. muricata, by a 
nearly naked fruit only an inch in diameter, containing only 
two globose seeds of half an inch in diameter. MM. Oregana, 
which is known to occur from the Columbia River to the north 
of California, appears to have seeds resembling those of Jd. 
Marah, but rather smaller; but they are not well known. The 
remaining one, M. Guadalupensis, of Guadalupe Island, off 
Lower California, is much out of ordinary reach, unless it 
should be found in the southern part of the State. 
Mature fruits and seeds of all the species are much desired. 
Fig. 1 represents a germinating plantlet of Megarrhiza Califor- 
nica, of natural size, complete except the lower part of the root. 
Fig. 2 represents the cotyledons at a later period, with their 
united petioles separated from above, still united into a tube 
below, the lower end of which is, cut away. 
