[24]

Feb. 19th Onion seed.

When seedlings first break through ground. Plumule doubled back in contact with lower part & with its apex still within seed feeding on its albuminous contents. At The exact centre or summit of arch is white & destitute of chlorophyll & forms a conical & slightly prominence

⸮ ⸮ {& I think that the epidermis resists a needle under the [illeg] without being ruptured, now better than stem above & below & I can hardly doubt is a special adaptation to break through the soil. Afterward, as the arch grows up & widens the prominence gets thrown rather to one side of summit of arch.

I find that when plumule first very soon after coming out of seed-coat it is arched with no prominence, but that the prominence is formed as it grows up through the soil so as to break through it — it answers homologically functionally to flattened shape white crest of not doubled cot. of the Gramineæ.—