5 88 



ON THE GERMINATION 



ances, or the germination of seeds in general, have 

 been made known by Malpighi and Grew, and 

 more lately by Gaertner ; but these eminent na- 

 turalists, having treated incidentally only of the 

 germination of the seeds of the gramineae, and the 

 object of their experiments having been limited 

 chiefly to the first period of this interesting process, 

 the question respecting the more advanced periods 

 still remained to be solved *. Having therefore 

 occasionally repeated some of the experiments of 

 M. Gaertner, I was induced to carry them some- 

 what farther ; and thirteen months ago, I had the 

 honour to state to the Society a circumstance il- 

 lustrative of this subject, namely, the presence of 

 a substance between the base of the first seminal 

 bulb (a) and the scutellum of these seeds, differ- 

 ing in structure and use from both, and serving a 

 purpose analogous with the tuberous substance in- 

 terposed between the bulbs and roots of the Li- 

 liacece, and other monocotyledonous tribes. This 

 substance Linnaeus f considered as part of the root 

 of these plants ; from which, however, it differs 

 essentially, being in reality an organ destined to 

 contain an indefinite number of embryo plants. 



* At this time I was unacquainted with the experi- 

 ments of MM. Mirbel, Poiteaux and Richard on this 

 subject. The last work I have not been able to obtain. 



$ *? Radix constat caudice et radicula. Bulbus est hy- 

 " bernaculum caudici descendente insidens." Philosophic* 

 Bctrmica } p. 38. & 50. 



