By the Hon. and Rev. William Herbert. 33 



been stripped off sometime before, for the purpose of exa- 

 mining it ; and 3, is another just beginning to sprout, con- 

 taining twin bulbs within the outer coat, which is withered. 



This is the first instance I have known, or heard, of an 

 embryo, either in the vegetable or animal kingdom, drawing 

 its support directly from the parent, without the intervention 

 and assistance of an intermediate body, such as the coty- 

 ledon, the yolk of the egg, or the placenta, to afford it nou- 

 rishment. I have indeed found one Oxalis from the Cape of 

 Good Hope (very much resembling, if not the same as, the 

 Oxalis glandulitega of the Paradisus Londinetisis, Plate 66) to 

 be viviparous ; but in that plant the young germ is furnished 

 with the usual cotyledon, though the seedling leaves are fully 

 expanded when the seed ( which is ejected, like that of Bal- 

 sams, by a jerk) falls upon the ground ; that amounts, there- 

 fore, only to a habit of premature vegetation in the seed, and 



