PEOFESSOR HEISTFEET ON THE ANATOMY OF VICTORIA REGIA. 485 
from his mistake about the position of the stipule, which does not sheath its own 
petiole, but is always axillary to the leaf, and envelopes the next succeeding leaf. The 
first leaf is necessarily naked outside. 
The petioles of these early leaves akeady exhibit the peculiar thickened base so highly 
developed on the full-grown rhizome ; and the earlier adventitious roots break out from 
the interior of these thickened petiole-bases, like the bundles of roots on the adult plant 
(fig. 22). On the base of the petiole of the first leaf I found two rootlets ; the petiole 
of the second leaf emitted three ; those of the third, fourth, and fifth each four rootlets. 
The structure and development of the rudimentary stem on which these leaves and 
rootlets are borne, agree very closely with that of germinating Monocotyledons, — for 
instance, with that of the Grasses ; the vertical section (Plate XXX. fig. 26) shows this, 
representing the scattered arrangement and crossings of the vascular bundles, and the 
absence of any pith. The vascular bundles of the rootlets {r r) are directly continuous 
with those of the stem ; but, as in the full-grown rhizome, the vessels occupy the absolute 
centre of the root, according to the Dicotyledonous type, and do not form a ring round 
a central cellular axis, as in the roots of Monocotyledons.’ 
The mode of germination here described appears somewhat anomalous ; but if, as the 
facts appear to indicate, the general arrangement of the axial organs approximates to 
the Monocotyledonous rather than the Dicotyledonous type, it is permissible to seek 
among the germinating seeds of Monocotyledons for parallels, in spite of the presence 
of two distinct cotyledons here. The point of view I should feel most inclined to take 
is, that while two cotyledons do actually exist, these become dissolved in germination 
the primordial leaf of the embryo assumes the usual characters of the single cotyledon 
of such Monocotyledonous embryos as those of Palms, its radicle and petiolar portion 
{tigelle) emerging from the orifice in the seed-coats, and giving origin, between the 
radicle and the base of the first leaf, to an elongated internode upon which the second 
leaf is seated*. The chief difference would be that in the Palm embryo the bud is 
enclosed in the interior of the ‘ tigelle ’ of the cotyledon, while in the Victoria the bud 
is naked on the side of the ‘ tigelle^ opposite the primordial leaf (or third cotyledon), so 
that it need not break out from the interior of the elongated ‘ tigelle^ as in the Palm. 
The spiral arrangement of the leaves of the rhizome, with their bunches of roots at 
the base of the petioles, was described in my former paper, and attention was at the 
* Since the above was written, I have endeavoured in vain to obtain more specimens of germinating seeds 
of Victwia. I have, however, observed in seedlings of a Nymphcea the conditions described by Trecuu and 
the authors of the ‘ Flora Indica,’ namely, the cotyledons, soldered together, remaining in the seed-coats, 
while the radicle and tigelle being pushed out as a simple process, soon formed an ‘ elbow,’ at which point 
the radicle and adventitious roots came olf and the second internode rose up to form the tuft of leaves. 
My Victoria may hence have been abnormally developed. Geisebach some years ago (Annals of Natural 
History, i. 6) described the germination oi lAmncmthemum from dried specimens; in that case he sup- 
posed one of the cotyledons to remain in the seed and the other to emerge. The appearances presented by 
his drawings approach very much those exhibited by germinating Nymphseacese, which is one more argu- 
ment for those who incline to believe in a relationship between the latter order and the Menyanthece, 
MDCCCLIX. 3 g 
