Stem to Root in the Vascular System of Seedlings. 635 
I worked out the details of this transition in many Mono- 
cotyledonous seedlings before hitting on a case which would 
not fit into one of these three schemes. The young seedlings 
of Anemarrhena asphodeloides , however, belong to a fourth 
and hitherto undescribed type. In many respects it is the 
converse of M. Van Tieghem’s second type, just as his third 
is the converse of his first l . 
Anemarrhena asphodeloides is a herbaceous perennial be¬ 
longing to the tribe Asphodeleae of the order Liliaceae. It 
is native to the north of China, but is occasionally cultivated 
in Japanese gardens (Benth. et Hook. Gen. Plant., vol. Ill, 
p. 782). Professor S. Ikeno has been good enough to send 
me seeds of this plant among others, from which I was able 
without difficulty to raise seedlings for my work. I have 
had no opportunity of examining the mature plant. One 
young specimen raised from seed is now in its second year. 
The root-stock is much flattened and almost disk-shaped ; 
from it spring several shoots of very narrow grass-like leaves. 
This young plant has not yet flowered. 
The three seedlings from which my preparations were made 
were eleven days old. Fig. 1 (Plate XXXIII) represents the 
largest ( A 3 ) and the smallest (Aj) of the trio. The plumule 
in both is completely enclosed within the base of the cotyledon 
and is embryonic (Fig. 3). This makes it quite clear that the 
symmetry of the root-stele is determined by the cotyledonary 
traces only. 
The preparations figured are all from a single seedling 
(A 3 ), and the levels through which they are cut are shown 
in the outline of A 3 (Fig. 1). The seed-coats have been shed 
from this specimen, and the tapering apex of the cotyledon 
is exposed. A hand-section through this region shows 
two massive bundles with particularly large phloem-groups, 
symmetrically placed within the oval outline of the section 
(Fig. 2). These two bundles run down the cotyledon. They 
are seen with the same orientation in two hand-sections, not 
1 E. Sargant, On a Fourth Type of Transition from Stem to Root Structure 
(Report, British Assoc., Bradford, 1900;. 
