Observations on the Seedling Anatomy of 
Certain Sympetalae. 
I. Tubiflorae. 
BY 
E. LEE, F.L.S. 
Lecturer in Botany , Birkbeck College , University of London. 
With Plate LX VIII and eight Diagrams and Figures in the Text. 
Historical. 
URING recent years our knowledge of seedling anatomy has been 
JL/ extended in nearly every direction. The researches of Van Tieghem 
(25, 26) about 1870 were followed by the published observations of many 
continental workers (chiefly 5, 7, and 28) ; but, as was almost inevitable in 
an unexplored branch of the subject, the researches carried out during this 
initial stage, with one notable exception (Vuillemin, 28), concerned only 
scattered species from the largest classes of plants. As published papers on 
this subject became more numerous, the method of attack changed. The 
publications of Sargant (13, 14, 15, 16) resulted in the systematizing of the 
observations on seedling anatomy. This has been especially the case with 
British workers, who have taken definite groups and have conducted their 
observations on large numbers of species within each group. The result is 
that, in place of the isolated observations often so favourable to theorists, 
there is now a solid body of evidence rather disturbing to certain phylo- 
genetic hypotheses, but undoubtedly valuable in other directions. The 
recent work of Chauveaud ( 2 ) has shown that seedling anatomy may possess 
an evolutionary value quite different from that hitherto assigned to it ; 
while the physiological aspect of this subject still remains almost un- 
touched. 
Hitherto systematic research on seedling structure of Dicotyledons has 
concerned chiefly certain groups among the Archichlamydeae of Engler 
(4, 6 , 8 , 9, 11, and 20 ). Apart from the work of Vuillemin (28) on the 
Compositae, observations on the Sympetalae have, for the most part, been 
scattered. In 1849 Clos, who, perhaps, may be described as the first 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVI. No. CI 1 I. July, 1912.] 
