io8 Ethel Sargant. 
The first question arising from the study of the vascular system 
in young seedlings is whether the course and symmetry of the 
bundles within the cotyledon and hypocotyl can be treated as 
characters possessing any phylogenetic value. To work out the 
seedling anatomy of some one family as completely as possible 
seemed the best way of attacking the problem, and my choice fell 
on the Liliacere. Abandoning the study already begun of Mono- 
cotyledonous seedlings in general, I collected and examined 
Liliaceous seedlings only. During the past four years I have 
collected and preserved seedlings belonging to sixty genera of this 
family. The detailed examination of these forms—in which I have 
been ably assisted by Miss Thomas-—is not yet complete, The 
species I have thoroughly worked out belong for the most part to 
the four central tribes of the family : Asphodele^e, Allieae, Scilleae 
and Tulipeae ; but I have also described a number of species from 
the Aloineas, Dracaeneae, and from some of the outlying tribes. 
No doubt now remains, in my mind, as to the systematic value 
of the indications given by the vascular structure of the cotyledon, 
hypocotyl and primary root. Such indications, however, can only 
be interpreted by the light of a wide experience. The primitive 
structure of the cotyledon and primary root is constantly concealed 
—wholly or in part—by the presence of adaptive characters. These 
are commonly less conspicuous in the hypocotyl, but the structure 
of this also cannot fail to be affected by alterations in that of the 
cotyledon and root. 
Seedlings are thrown on their own resources at so early a 
period in their life history, that the struggle for existence, repeated 
through many generations, often transforms their whole structure. 
At the time of germination this structure is still so little differenti¬ 
ated as to be extraordinarily plastic. 
For some time, though recognizing certain embryonic characters 
as common to groups of genera, I found no vascular arrangement 
which there was any ground for considering primitive: none, that 
is, from which the ground-plan of several other groups could be 
readily derived. The first seedlings examined were those of bulbous 
species: Lilium, Fritillaria, Allium, and others. In all these genera 
the cotyledon early appears lateral with respect to the succeeding 
leaves. I learnt to look on an asymmetrical bundle-arrangement as 
characteristic of monocotyledonous hypocotyls, and became familiar 
with the various schemes according to which the lateral cotyledonary 
trace or traces passed into a central and symmetrical root-stele. 
