, 1893-07-05

afford in their termination a good means of
studying the peculiarities of the monocoty-
ledonous embryo. that is to say the embryo
i'll hat class of plants where the plant starts
with one seed leaf, in contrast with the other
great division of towering plants, III which,
the plant always starts with two leaves.
Next TO- The division Of the whole vegelab!e
Kingdom into plants that bear flowers nDd
plants without flow ers. the division here
spoken Of IS the most important, ami If We
wish t. understand the grounds for 1t We
can scarcely do better than commence by COM
pairing the growth Of a two-leaycd embryo,
say from the seed of a c~tstor-oii plant, with
the growth of the seed of the spider lilly. In
the former we shall find two small leaves
ON d short stem, from the upper part of which
the young leaves plumule shoot up~wardswhiI1
from the lower part the roots shoot down
wards. In the latter we shall not find any
snch pair Of leaves; the embryo, ON growing
out from the seed, expands into o bowl shaped
form, while in the bottom of the bowl II but
is formed, the bulb of the plant, and from the
under side of the bowl roots shoot out INTO
the soil. Between the roots and the scales or
leaves of the bulb we find the only stem that the
plant ever has, a short cone, from which the
leaves of the bulb spring all around while the
roots spring from it's base. We thus see that
the bulb Is by no means a root. 1t is III u
iaCl q qua OF TPCuIiaT CnaTaClei. 4 MS qua 10
continual Y sending up fresh leaves from the
centre, and as the older leaves outside die they
leave their heshy bases in The bulb to form d
storeshouse Of nouriShment to carry the
plant over dry seasons or other critical times
or for use at he season of towering.
1t is curious that the bulb, although form'
ed above ground, finds its way down, and IN
this, as in so many other cases, becomes al
together buried in the soil. 1t must be re-
membered that it does not grots downwalds,
it absolutely shifts its place. probably
everyone knows the story Of George III and
the apple dumping how cnriosity prompted
him to ask the cottager t'"But hew ale devil
did the apple get in p We may suppose that
the cottager most humblY explained 10 His
Majesty that the apple did not get IN, hut
that the paste was put round the apple. In
the case under consideration, however, We can
scarcely suppose that the soil rises to sur
round the bulb. and, if not, then certainly the
bulb does 90 down into'the soil. But how On
this point the present writer vail only make a
suggestion or two, and that w,th tmuch difh-
dence, having made only a quite FsuperhclAl
study Of it.. When we xamine The roots OF n
Young bulb we ofte 5 find them much wrlnkied
c~rosswise.. Has this Notwithstanding t. do
with the matter? Possibly. Il may be presnm,
ed that everybody knows what warping a ship
mcans A rope is put out and made fast to
some object, such as a bu oy, and then the
sailors haul on the rope and so bring the
vessel forward. Is it possible that the young
bulb is. warped into the GROUND, that the long
roots. which are smooth when first sent ont,
contract in their length, and thus haul the
bulb downwards? It. may be 90 Again it may
b. that the bulb scales contract and expand
somewhat with changes in the amount Of mons
ture they get. If so, the roots would be
much helped in the hauling action.
We will conclude with a query how in
the spider lily disseminated !? The large
fesl,y seeds are most unlikely objects to b"
carried about by the wind they Lave no
appendage for fixing themselves to the
coa,s of animals and they aye too
soft to allow us to NIIcte that
they could be eaten by animals without at
same time being destroyed Yet We find
the plants widely scattered. We can under
standhow they come TO form large colonies, $
theyoften do near the sea shore; for the over
hanging stems drop their seeds outside the lin
its Of the group, and thus it is continually ex.
tended AS the seeds float in water we can
also understand that when the plants were
once established in the upper part of II
stream they world soon be found at different
points lower down. But these considerations
answer the, q estion in emily a very limited