Messrs Gardiner and Hill , Histology of the Endosperm. 445 
The Histology of the Endosperm during Germination in Tamils 
communis and Galium Tricorne. By Walter Gardiner, M.A., 
F.R.S., Fellow and Bursar of Clare College, and Arthur W. Hill, 
M.A., Fellow of King’s College. 
[Read 17 February, Received 12 June 1902.] 
In a communication laid before the Royal Society in 1897 b 
a description was given of the phenomena which accompany 
germination in the Endosperm of Tamus communis. We have 
recently re-examined the endosperm of Tamus and also investigated 
the histology of the endosperm of Galium Tricorne by way of 
comparison, and we hope to study the germination of other thick- 
walled seeds in the same way as opportunity occurs. 
The macroscopic features of the germination of Tamus prove to 
be of some interest, and as only a few figures of the stages of 
germination have been published before by Bucherer and others 2 , 
it seems well to describe shortly the external features of ger- 
mination before proceeding to consider the changes which take 
place in the endosperm. If one of the small, round, seeds be 
examined the micropyle can be distinguished as a tiny brown 
point. Beneath it is situated the somewhat ovoid embryo, which 
is found to be lying in a radial position, with its more pointed or 
cotyledonary end directed towards the centre of the seed, and its 
blunt end, which is occupied by the radicle, lying just internal to 
the micropyle 3 (Plate V, Fig. 3). In a thin section through the 
micropyle the actual pore is visible, surrounded by the strongly- 
thickened and suberizgfl walls of the integuments. 
On the commencement of germination, the radicle begins to 
grow outwards and, owing to pressure from within, a little semi- 
circular area of the testa around the micropyle breaks away from 
the rest of the seed coat and gets pushed upwards by the emerging 
radicle ; and since at one point it remains attached to the seed 
coat, it has the appearance of a little lid having the peg-like 
micropyle in the centre (Fig. 1). Through the opening so formed 
the radicle grows out (Fig. 2), followed soon afterwards by the 
1 Gardiner, W., Proc. Roy. Soc., 1897, p. 105, figs. 1 and 8. 
2 Bucherer, Bibliotheca Botanica, Heft 16, Le Maout and Decaisne (Eng. ed.), 
pp. 794, 795. 
3 Cf. Solms Laubach, Bot. Zeit., 1878, pp. 65 — 82. 
