59 
Walnut, the first illustrates the position of the vessels in the 
perisperm, and the last is a mounted specimen of the Endo- 
pleura, showing a cellular structure with a complete absence 
of any vessels, so that I conclude as the Endopleura sur- 
rounds the nucleus and is probably the enlarged Embryo- 
sac, that the nutrition of the Embryo must take place by 
some analogous process to that of Endosrnose, no vessels 
entering it. 
The second series of sections will not take much time, 
but it will give us some information as to the way that the 
stored material of the Cotyledon is absorbed and conveyed 
to the young plant. 
In the section of maize exhibited, cut after germination, 
that system of absorbent vessels is well shown, growing like 
true rootlets within the Cotyledon, and conveying the 
nutrient fluid to the young Radicle, the Endosperm being 
considerably wasted. Sections of the Pea and Bean show 
these vessels through the Cotyledons. 
The third series of sections is not as numerous nor as com- 
plete as I should have wished it to be; but it is interesting, 
and will require further attention. 
It has often puzzled me as to why the Radicle of the 
embryo should in germination take such a decided advance 
over the Plumule, being then under the impression that 
Radicle and Plumule were nourished alike by the material 
of the Cotyledon. I think that this is not the case, and I 
hope to give you some reasons for this statement. I believe 
at present that the whole, or a very large portion, of the 
nourishing material of the Cotyledon is exhausted in the 
development of the Radicle, and that the Plumule makes 
only a slight growth until the rootlets of the plants spring- 
ing from the descending central axis are enabled to obtain 
from the soil the nutriment that the Plumule or ascending 
o 
axis requires. 
Sections of the Garden Mustard cut longitudinally through 
