Thiselton-Dyer.—Morphological Notes. 227 
Everything connected with Lodoicea is on a gigantic scale, and the 
germination is no exception. According to Sir William Hooker: ‘From 
the period of its falling from the tree, a year elapses before the nut begins 
to germinate.’ Mr. Button, however, put the period at ‘ four or five months 
before germinating and sometimes less ’. The germination morphologically 
is of an ordinary monocotyledonous type. The apex of the cotyledon 
remains immersed in the endosperm and develops into a vast suctorial 
organ, while its petiole, which is about an inch in diameter, emerges 
from the nut carrying with it the plumule and ‘radicle’. The petiole, 
which acts as a sort of umbilical cord, according to Mr. Button, ‘ enters 
the ground to the depth of about one or two feet, then continues under¬ 
ground nearly parallel to the surface for a distance of four, five, six feet, 
sometimes more.’ A note of General Gordon’s is that it ‘ comes to 
sprout out of the ground twelve feet from nut’. Mr. Button subsequently 
informed me that it ‘ runs in the ground, sometimes to a distance of 
several yards before coming to the surface 
The difficulties of successful germination under artificial conditions 
will now be apparent. At Kew the nuts were buried in coco-nut fibre 
in a hotbed. Germination, once commenced, proceeded rapidly. Un¬ 
fortunately in at least one instance it proved abortive. Before the 
proceeding could be detected the growing apex managed to insinuate itself 
in some crevice, with the result that it was irretrievably injured. In a 
subsequent attempt the petiole did not grow to so great a length, and it 
was possible to guide its course and finally establish the young plant in 
a pot. This grew pretty rapidly, and in 1892 was exhibited in the Victoria 
Regia House at Kew, still drawing nutriment from the parent seed, 
a process which may apparently continue for some years. 
The cultural failures were at any rate available for anatomical purposes. 
One of them supplied the material for the accompanying plates. These 
represent a structure which, as far as size is concerned, is amongst the 
most remarkable, if not the most so, in the vegetable kingdom. They are 
somewhat smaller than life-size. Plate XIX represents a longitudinal 
section through a germinating nut. The actual specimen (which may be 
seen with its companion in Museum No. II at Kew) is two and a half inches 
wider than in the figure, and the other dimensions are of course diminished 
in proportion. It shows a section of the foot-like suctorial apex of the 
cotyledon. This has developed at the expense of the endosperm, which it 
has completely broken down and absorbed. Nothing remains of it but 
mere exhausted flakes which adhere to the internal walls of the nut. The 
petiole of the cotyledon will be noticed passing outwards through the 
sinus. Plate XX represents the external surface of the other half of the 
suctorial structure. The position is reversed as compared with Plate XIX, 
and the attachment of the petiole is below. It again is reduced and the 
Q 2 
