44 



Woodliead : Notes on the Bluebell. 



age represented in Fig-, i, a, is shown in the plate Fig. i. Here 

 we see that the endosperm cells immediately surrounding the 

 cotyledon tip are deprived of their starchy contents. Fig. 2 of 

 the plate is a later stage, in which the cell contents have disap- 

 peared in nearly all but the outer cells. The starch furthest 

 from the tip is the last to disappear, and is seen in this illustra- 

 tion still densely crowded around the micropyle. Ultimately 

 the cellulose walls undergo digestion (Fig. 2, a), and nothing- 

 remains but the empty shell of the seed."^ 



The phloem of the vascular bundle is large, and in intimate 

 relation with the elongated cells forming the tip (Fig. 2, b), and 

 so especially fitting the cotyledon to act mainly as a conductor 

 of organic materials from the endosperm downwards, t 



diiigrammatic. 



The upper portion of the seed leaf gradually withers, and 

 may be seen as a slender thread which finally disappears. The 

 lower portion, however, enlarges considerably, and forms the 

 first fleshy scale leaf of the young bulb (Fig. i, d), A diagram 

 of such a bulb is shown in longitudinal section in Fig. 3, b, and 

 in transverse section at c ( x 6). 



Sc\ eral seeds were found in Birks wood, sections of which showed 

 iheni lo he packed with fung^al hyphcC, the embryo and endosperm being- 

 entiicly absorbed, and hypha^ emerg-ing- from the micropyle. This sug-g-ests 

 iho possibility of the bhiebeU being- inoculated by a fungus in a way siniilar 

 to ConliiiH ii/dciilaf i( III bv Syii/pliosi ra parcxsitica (Nat., Jan. 1903, p. 6). 

 I Sargant, Theory of the Origin of Monocotyledons, Ann. Bot., 1903, p. i. 



Naturalist,, 



