92 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Although Brown and Salisbury were quite clear as to the true seed- 

 character of these structures, it is evident that some divergence of opinion 

 existed, for in 1824 Achille Richard, in a paper entitled " Observations 

 sur les pretendus hulbilles qui se developpent dans I'interieur des capsules 

 de quelques especes de Crinum'' (" Annales Sci. Nat." ii. p. 12), 

 refers to the great number of authors who have spoken of fleshy 

 bulbils developing in the interior of capsules and replacing the seeds 

 in Crinum, Amaryllis, &c., and says that having had the opportunity of 

 observing the pretended bulbils in Crinum asiaticum, erubescens, and 

 taitense, he has assured himself of the error of the above statements. 

 He gives a description (with figs.) of the structure of the seeds and the 

 early stages of germination. He describes an integument (a sort of 

 brownish epidermis, thick, dry and peeling irregularly) enclosing a thick 



Fig. 22. — Crinum longifolium, Thunb. (Avmrijllis longifolia, L.) 



1. Seed germinating— a, seed ; r, radicle ; c, cotyledon ; 6, first leaf ; sh, base of 

 sheath of cotyledon which is already thickening to form the outermost bulb-scale, 

 inside sli is the plumule. 



2. Sucker, s, formed :it the tip of the cotyledon by which the nourishment in 

 the endosperm is absorbed for the benefit of the seedling. 



3. Section of germinating seed sho\ving the sucker, s, of the cotyledon lying 

 in the endosperm. 



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

 British Museum.) 



cellular endosperm, containing no vessels and becoming greenish towards 

 the exterior, and a small embryo near the base of the endosperm. In 

 germination the radicle makes its way out and grows downw^ards, soon 

 drawing from the grain the cotyledon, which then elongates. 



From the above notes w^e see that some discrepancy existed in the 

 views held as to the nature of the fleshy substance surrounding the 

 embryo. Brown finds that, in certain cases at any rate, it contains 

 vascular tissue ; Salisbury also says that spiral vessels enter at the hilum, 

 but are chiefly distributed along the margin of the fleshy mass, and 

 that the great mass consisted of a thick fleshy coat. Richard, on the other 

 hand, in the species of Crinum which he examined, refers the fleshy mass- 

 to endosperm. 



