Experiments with Lima Beans in Germination.1 -After
reading some of the suggestive writings of Darwin, I began a
few experiments with some Lima beans. About forty seeds were
planted in the damp sand placed in a cellar. Of these twenty
were placed on edge with the scar or hilum downwards, and
twenty in a reverse position with the hilum uppermost.

In most cases seeds of this species, when germinating, produce
a long radicle, which carries the cotyledons some inches above
ground. In this case two seeds produced a very short radicle,-
perhaps half an inch long,-so that the cotyledons remained beneath the surface, as is usually the case with germinating peas.
The beans planted with the eye down behaved well and came up
promptly, all of them, while those placed in the reverse position
went through with a great variety of maneuvers, and even then
some of these perished in the attempt to make young plants.
After some delay a considerable portion of them came out of
the ground. Most of these bent the radicle into a half-circle, or,
rather, that of an ox-bow, with one arm much longer than the
other, carrying up the cotyledons. In making growth in the
cellar nearly all of the young plants sent from one to several
roots above the surface, where they usually re-entered the sand.

Four out of the twenty with the scar-edge up, after exhausting
the nourishment stored in the cotyledons, perished in their at-
tempts to make a successful growth. The lengthening radicle
arched up out of the sand, but the plumule finally decayed.

In the sandy soil of my garden were placed twenty-five seeds
in the manner last mentioned. A few came up very promptly,
but for some time most of them seemed to rest beneath the surface

1 Read at the Montreal meeting of A. A. A. S. in I882, and only a very brief
abstract printed, without illustrations.


PLATE XIX.
1
2
3
3.C.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

577
but a week of rainy weather brought most of the rest to
the surface in some form or other. Nine out of twenty-five sent
the lower end of the radicle, with its roots, from three-fourths to
two and one-half inches above the surface. The plumule for a
time remained green, and the cotyledons were not yet exhausted;
but in time all of these perished without bringing any green leaves
to the surface. - W. 7. Beal, Agricultural College, Mich.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE.
No. I. The first of those to come up, where the hilum was placed uppermost,
usually took the form of this figure.
No. 2. This represents one of those in which the hilum was placed uppermost.
No. 3. In this case the seedling is still struggling to send its plumule to the sur-
face. The cotyledons, which were attached at C, have been rubbed off by the
movements of the young plant through the sand.
No. 4. One plant is here represented in which the partially-exhausted cotyledons
had been rubbed off.
No. 5. This represents one specimen in which the cotyledons have disappeared
and the plumule has decayed.
No. 6. In this case the cotyledons have disappeared; the plumule and primary
leaves were still green; some of the roots were still fresh in the soil, though the
lower end of the radicle was elevated nearly three inches above the surface of the
sand.
No. 7. Six out of twenty-five planted in open ground with the hilum uppermost
were much like this figure, and likely to succeed in becoming good plants.
No. 8. Nine out of twenty-five planted as above in the open ground thrust the
radicle with its roots nearly straight up out of the soil, sometimes as much as two
and one-half inches, when the seedlings perished.

[All the figures were made by Will. Holdsworth.]