5«2 
Hatfield . — Anatomy of the Seedling and 
of the conducting system. It may be that the need of a greater development 
of conducting tissue thus indicated is met by the plant by the formation of 
the anomalous ring-structures described. 
The whole habit of the plant, with its tuberous hypocotyl, in which 
early-formed xylem is doubled up in an extremely complicated manner, 
the broad and fleshy stem, with its great and definite parenchymatous 
development, obviously differs so much from the normally elongated 
dicotyledonous and gymnospermous plants that it is tempting to suppose 
that habit and anomalous vascular structure are not merely correlated, but 
that the former is causally related to the latter. If this be so, we are 
dealing here with phenomena which may be compared, in a general way, 
with the anomalous rings of the beetroot and the anomalies found in such 
plants as W elwitschia and Isoetes, and the existence of these would seem 
not in itself to cariy with it any phylogenetic significance. 
The cotyledonary node. This is simple in structure in the seedling ; in the 
young plant the same fundamental structure obtains (Plate XXII, Fig. IV), 
but it is obscured by the extreme complication of the secondary tissues. As 
this complication is accompanied by very great distortion in tissues both 
of epicotyl and hypocotyl, it seems unlikely that any such phylogenetic 
importance as has been attributed to it 1 can be attached to the structure at 
this stage. 
No concentric bundles have been observed in the course of this 
investigation. Many horseshoe-shaped ones have been seen ; these were 
always found to be transient agglomerations of the usual Cycadean endarch 
or mesarch traces. 
Finally, I should like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Thomas, 
who suggested this work, for her very helpful advice and criticism while it 
was in progress. Further, to thank Miss A. J. Davey for help in the 
preparation of sections, &c., and my friend Miss Pr anker d for her 
sympathetic encouragement. 
1 Worsdell : loc. cit. 
