420 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



GERMINATION OF AMARYLLIDEiE. 

 By A. Worsley, F.R.H.S. 



In the Journal of the Society, Vol. xxvii. pp. xxxvii, 852, &c. several 

 notices and articles have recently appeared dealing with this subject. It has 

 been my object to show that the process of germination is by no means 

 such a simple affair as some have supposed, and is even now, perhaps, not 

 thoroughly understood. 



The first process which issues from the seed has been, by previous 

 writers, termed the Cotyledon. I have preferred to call it " the Original 

 Process," because I think that it will be quite soon enough to give it a 

 particularised name when its complete functions are ascertained ; and also 

 because, as I have pointed out (Vol. xxvii. p. xxxvii), those functions 

 which we can follow are quite distinct from the functions fulfilled by the 

 Cotyledon in the Dicotyledonous Orders. 



I have also striven to show (Vol. xxvii. p. 855) that the curvature of this 

 Original Process, antecedent to the formation of any true roots, is not 

 governed by any geocentric inclination, but by the law of " the survival of 

 the fittest." 



In my view the division of plants into Monocotyledons and Dicotyle- 

 dons is too particularised. No such exact division exists in Nature. 



We find the one organ — the Cotyledon — in every such seedling. In 

 some cases it is simple (uncleft) ; in others it is sub-cleft (divided into two 

 or more lobes.) 



In Crinum it is simple, and consists of a fleshy mass surrounding the 

 embryonic sac. In the so-called Dicotyledonous Orders it is usually sub- 

 cleft into two lobes. But two lobes are by no means the maximum 

 number ; I have found three, and even four, to occur in some cases. As an 

 instance I may cite Senecio. Out of a pan of forty seedlings of Cineraria 

 (Hort.), I counted 36 with normal Cotyledon, five with three-cleft, and one 

 with a four-cleft Cotyledon. 



Also, among Gesneracece, I have noticed both in Gloxinia and Tydcea 

 (Isoloma) many cases of three-cleft Cotyledons, and I have raised and 

 flowered Gloxinias and Tydaeas which not only had this peculiarity in their 

 Cotyledon, but in the whole of their mature foliage, a whorl of three leaves 

 being in every case produced in place of the usual opposite pair. 



In the case of Crinum, it is easy to see how much is achieved by the 

 removal of the Growing Point (in the tip of the Original Process) to some 

 distance from the seed, but one great gain is that the putrid decay, which 

 in time attacks the husks of these' large fleshy seeds, should not involve 

 the young plant. 



I have attached (fig. 110) a drawing of a seedling of Crinum Moorei 

 during the gestative period. The Cotyledon, simple in this case, is the 

 fleshy mass surrounding the embryonic sac, and constitutes the bulk of the 

 seed. From this issues the Original Process, consisting of an outer 

 cylindrical process, and an inner leaf-like one. It is probable that through 



