xl PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



decapitated specimen exhibited at the meeting of the Scientific Committee), 

 just as such axillary growths may spring from the axils of any of the 

 leaves of the growing plant. 



Now turn to these drawings of the germinating seed of Crinum Moore i 

 (Fig. 62), and suppose the amorphous mass surrounding the embryo to be 

 the cotyledon. It is simple, not cleft. It entirely embraces the embryo. 

 A process issues which has no counterpart in the Phaseolus ; it bends to 

 the ground and is terminated by a bulb or bud. 



Can this process be the cotyledon, as asserted by some ? 



For weeks or months it has no means of support (except such as it 

 draws from the seed). 



Can it be nourished out of nothing, grow larger and larger on nothing ? 

 I cannot ask you to believe this. 



No, it only grows at the expense of the amorphous mass and other parts 

 of the seed. As it grows they decrease, suffer atrophy, and ultimately die 

 just as the young bulb or bud becomes weaned. If this process was a 

 cotyledon, it would perform the function of supporting the young plant 

 during this period. Instead of doing this, it is itself nourished at the 

 expense of the amorphous mass, and hence must be a part, not of the 

 cotyledon, but of the young plant itself, or be a mere extension of the 

 embryonic sac. In my view, therefore, this original process cannot be a 

 cotyledon or part thereof. It is a process which, directly it begins to grow, 

 does so at the expense of the seed. It has no counterpart in the Phaseolus 

 we have before us. 



It is possible, as I assumed for the purpose of this analogy, that the 

 simple amorphous mass surrounding the embryo in the seed of Crinum 

 Moore i is the cotyledon. At least it subserves the corresponding purpose. 



Referring to alleged abnormal production of young bulbs within the 

 fruit, it is possible for such germination to take place, for a young bulb 

 to be formed, and for the seed to perish. This is a perfectly natural 

 process, and it is not, necessary, when we desire to account for it, to call to 

 our aid such extraneous agencies as viviparous roots, abnormal develop- 

 ment, and so forth. 



To many persons Nature presents an indescribable anarchy unless 

 they are allowed the exact names and definitions which they admire. 

 Definitions, names, gradations of rank, help many minds to grasp 

 problems. To others such restrictions make problems more difficult. 



Neiv Species of Hippeas trum. — Mr. Worsley showed a flower of a 

 supposed new species, with the following note : — " Hippeastrum Kromeri 

 is an unrecorded species introduced by Mr. Kromer, of the Roraima 

 Nurseries, Croydon, who both presented me with a bulb and sent flowers 

 of other bulbs not showing any divergence. It was gathered in the high- 

 lands of Minas Geraes, Brazil, on the banks of the Upper Rio Sao 

 Francisco. It holds an intermediate position between the rutilum-regina? 

 group and the epiphytal group inhabiting the Organ Mountains. It 

 seems nearest akin, geographically and generally, with H. correiensis 

 liury. Hex. 9]." 



