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LEAYES OF EPILOBIUM MOFTANFM 



191 



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ages, which, so far as he has been able to ascertain, are unde- 



«M5ribed. They occur on the apices of the younger and nascent 



leaves, and may be readily observed, assisted by a simple lens, by 



removing the outer fleshy, alternately opposite pairs, imtil but 



from two to four or five pairs remain around the ptmcfum ve^e- 

 tationis. 



The outer leaves provided with the 'gland' present it as a 

 yellow-brown, or brown-black apical process, evidently evanescing 

 and about to fall away. These glands, which are somewhat ovate- 

 comcal or oblong in form, are erecto-patent, or deflexed towards 

 the back of the leaves ; thus, when seen in profile or from, above, 

 they radiate from the axis of the sprout. The external leaf-scales, 

 which, doubtless, in their early condition had been in like manner 

 lurmshed with these organs, do not exhibit any very perceptible 

 ficar at the point of their former attachment. The * glands' 

 appear to be in their matured and perfect condition on but the 

 very young leaves, the contents of the large cells composing 

 them assuming, more especially towards the base and middle 

 portion, a yellowish-brown colour, and at the same time becoming 

 Diore opake, and probably granular, as they remove from the 

 termination of the axis- The perfect * gland' consists of nume- 

 rous, comparatively large cells, filled with a clear wateiy cell-sap, 

 becoming yellowish on the application of tinctiu^e of iodine. In 

 some cases perhaps they are almost pedicellate, though generally 

 they may be termed sessile, and resting upon the apex of the leaf. 

 They appear in almost the earliest stage of the nascent leaf, form- 

 mg, when the succeeding pair becomes visible, an appendage of 

 considerable relative size. 



The minute buds in the axils of the cataphyUary leaves of these 

 rosettes are also furnished with these organs. 



Mr. OKver considers the function and purpose of these glands, 

 as in many and parallel cases in structural botany, to be enveloped 

 ^ obscurity. He suggests that it would be desirable that some 

 observer having at hand fresh specimens of allied Epilobia and 

 other Onagracecd producing 'rosettes' towards the cold season, 

 should take the pains to institute a more comparative exami- 

 nation of these structures, which possess, he thinks, considerable 

 interest, 



^. Oliver's Note was accompam*ed by illustrative microscopical 

 4^wings of the structures indicated. 





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