THE BULBIFORM SEEDS OF CERTAIN AMAEYLLIDE.I^:. 91 



authority, convince me that these bulbiform seeds, so far from being 

 detached before their embryo becomes visible, adhere to the dissepiments 

 of the pericarpium till it is not only formed but very often sprouts." The 

 radicular end of the embryo " is invariably directed towards the micropyle, 

 ■but when the seed swells to a large size this is removed by dilation of the 

 hilum to a considerable distance from the nourishing duct, being placed at 

 the opposite end of the hilum as in LeguminoscB ; and by the time many 

 of these seeds are ripe, all traces both of micropyle and hilum, except the 

 cicatrix of the nourishing ducts, nearly vanish ; the original disc of the 

 hilum is, however, often concave. After the radicle comes out of the 

 fleshy coat at the micropyle, the facility with which it forces a passage 

 through other substances is astonishing, rarely turning out of its way, but 

 piercing an adjacent seed of the opposite cell in those capsules which do not 



Fig. 21. — CrinH7n longifolium, Thunb. {Ainanjllis longifolia, L.) Seeds germinating 

 in a capsule which has been prevented from opening. 



1. The radicle r of seed a has approached seed b. 



2. The radicle and cotyledon of a have pierced b ; the plumule, which has been 

 carried through in the base of the cotyledonary sheath sh, is developing, the first 

 leaf I having already emerged. The long cotyledon c still communicates with the 

 seed from which it is absorbing nourishment. A precisely similar seedling is 

 developing from b. 



3. The same as 2, but the seed b has been cut open. Note at h the swollen 

 sucker formed by the apex of the cotyledon. 



(Copied from a drawing by R. A. Salisbury, now in the Department of Botany, 

 British Museum.) (See Salisbury, Genera Plantarum,^. 122.) 



split, or the membranous coat of the capsule itself (see fig. 21), apparently 

 with as much ease as the lightest earth, and often in a direction contrary to 

 gravitation. Any botanist desirous of seeing this need only to tie a piece 

 of muslin round the capsule of Amaryllis longifolia, L., a little before it 

 is ripe, and by placing that afterwards in any moist part of the stove, he 

 will soon find the seeds sewed together by their radicles as completely as 

 by a piece of string, see Tab. (fig. 21). Before the plumule or first leaf is 

 evolved, an incipient bulb forms at its base, the outer coat of that being 

 part of the cotyledon, to which physical law I know no exception, though 

 the deity has probably ordained that no physical law shall be universal." 



The figure to which Salisbury refers, and which was not published, I 

 find among his drawings ; it is reproduced above in fig. 21. 



