the Young Epicotyl in some Ranalean Forms . 165 
The vascular axis consists of a ring of strands smaller in number than 
in the adult plant. The foliage leaves each supply three strands, and their 
insertion is trilacunar except in the case of the first leaf, whose strands unite 
at the point of entry. Secondary thickening is present at and near the 
cotyledonary node in a seedling with three expanded foliage leaves. This 
is a slightly later appearance than in Aquilegia , but otherwise the structure is 
very similar. 
C. Davidiana is very similar to C. Vitalba in all respects. This species 
was not described by M. Sterckx. 
C. alpina was only examined in a young stage, but it seemed to corre- 
spond with the last two species. 
The opposite-leaved habit in the seedling stage, found in the remaining 
species of this genus, is unique within the family Ranun- 
culaceae. There is considerable variety in the behaviour 
of this type, even within the limits of one species. 
C. recta. The seed is large and flat and germination 
hypogeal. M. Sterckx has described epigeal specimens . 1 
The cotyledons have somewhat long petioles. The 
plumule emerges from within a short cotyledonary tube. 
The first internode is usually short, the later ones vary 
in different specimens ; but most commonly the third and 
subsequent ones are elongated. The first few pairs of 
leaves are reduced to mere cup-like growths of concurrent 
scales. The later leaves are ovate with entire margins and 
are smaller than those of C. Vitalba. Axillary buds in 
the foliage and cotyledonary leaf axils are a feature of this 
type of seedling. 
The anatomical features are very variable, and in the 
early stages the strands are not always differentiated in 
all parts of their course. The internodes contain four separate collateral 
bundles. These are continuous with one another from node to node 
instead of alternating as in the adult. The leaf traces are three from each 
leaf, and the laterals of adjacent leaves join one another and are inserted 
in the middle of one opposite pair of the four strands which open out to 
receive them, whereas the median strands are inserted in the middle of 
the other pair. Sterckx figures a complete approximation of the alternate 
half-strands at the nodes which I have not succeeded in observing, but it 
seems probable that this may be effected at a later age. Just above the 
cotyledonary node two of the strands bifurcate, and thus the usual nodal 
arrangement of three groups on either side of the cotyledonary plane is 
obtained and root structure is arrived at in the usual manner. 
C. orientalis . Germination may be epigeal or hypogeal. The former 
1 Loc. cit., p. 48. 
Text-fig. 8. 
Clematis Vitalba. 
i nat. size. 
