through Self-adaptation to a Moist or Aquatic Habit . 725 
The finest specimens of Lilium cordifolium growing wild are on the shores 
of lakes, in eighteen inches of water, thus being true aquatics. Hyacinths 
cannot be grown in this country as in Holland ; without doubt this is 
a question of water. There they get an abundance of it. Tulips require 
less water than Hyacinths.’ 1 
Mr. N. S. Pillans, the well-known Cape botanist, writes me from Cape 
Town: £ One question you ask I can reply to, that is whether Cape bulbous 
plants flourish best when their roots get an abundance of moisture. They 
certainly do , and most species flourish best under those conditions. Some 
become so luxuriant as to change their appearance, just as some succu¬ 
lents do.’ 
The leek is a bulbous plant when wild, as in the dry fields of Malta ; 
but under a rich cultivation it has reverted to its, presumably, ancestral 
bulbless form. 
I would suggest that the trunks of Palms, like the Baobab and ‘ bottle ’ 
trees, store water in the ground tissue ; for some species resemble the latter 
at their base. Indeed, a palm may be compared with the bulb without 
internodes, but with the axis or stem drawn out; just as some Lilies pass 
gradually from bulbs to rhizomes. 
Cycad stems may be compared to Palms, for both living and extinct 
plants of Cycadaceae and Bennettiteae are palm-like. The large pith 
of the latter, as seen in Bennettites Saxbyanus , was probably adapted for 
water storage. 2 Similarly the figure given of Cordaites 3 shows a strong 
zone of xylem with a large and discoidal pith, admirably adapted for water 
storage. These and other features seem to prove that such Cycadaceous 
plants were not hygrophytes or hydrophytes but entirely xerophytes. 4 It 
is notorious how the Date-palm craves for water. 
9. Cycads and Monocotyledons. 
It is a remarkable fact that Robert Brown, from the study of the 
embryo, thought he saw an affinity to Monocotyledons in Cycads ; so 
he placed Cycadeae at the end of that class, immediately preceding Dico¬ 
tyledons. ‘ In this order,’ he says, 4 we have at least, in respect of the 
external structure of the embryo, a transition from Monocotyledons to 
Dicotyledons. The development of the plumule agrees better with that of 
the former class ; for in all these (Grasses and Aroids excepted) the primary 
1 The above facts have been kindly communicated to me by Mr. Rudolf Barr, the experienced 
cultivator of bulbs. 
2 Scott, op. cit., ii, p. 563, Fig. 201. 
3 Ibid., p. 528, Fig. 190. 
4 See my paper on the Xerophytic Characters of Coal-Plants. Quart. Journal Gcol. Soc., lxiii, 
1907, p. 282. 
