176 MR. P. GROOM—CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 
part of the plant. Yet in his figure the ovary and the base of 
each bract is painted green. 
As the habitat of the plant Blume mentions the forests of 
high mountains in Java. 
The several specimens which I investigated were in flower. 
And I may supplement Blume’s description by a few remarks on 
the external morphology of the plant. 
The subterranean part of the plant consists of a small cylin- 
drical rhizome with minute scale-leaves. From this radiate the 
long simple unbranched* roots which extend horizontally close 
under the surface of the soil. 
Above the attachment of the roots, at the base of the scape, 
the scale-leaves are larger and sheathing. 
The form of the saprophyte does not differ so much from that 
of a green terrestrial orchid as does G'aleola. "There is no great 
disproportion between the size and form of the subterranean and 
aerial parts of the plant. In fact, judging from the small size of 
the rhizome, the fair size of the sheathing-scales, one might not 
surmise, from alcohol specimens, that the plant contained little 
or no chlorophyll. Corresponding to this lack of any striking 
morphological peculiarities, the plant displays histological struc- 
ture which deviates but slightly from that of green plants. 
Histology of the Root. 
A mature part of the root displays the following structure :— 
A piliferous layer is represented by a single layer, which is 
preserved in patches. Some cells are flattened, and others are 
prolonged into root-hairs. The latter have thick suberized walls 
which are pierced by mycorhizal hyphz. The hyphs can be 
traced from the hairs into the deeper tissues of the root. 
There is a definite exodermis with small protoplasmic passage- 
cells which are traversed by mycorhizal hyphe. 
There succeeds a distinct exocortex composed of two or three 
layers of radially flattened cells. Raphide-mucilage cells form 
longitudinal rows in this layer, but do not occur elsewhere in 
the root. The innermost layer often has elongated mycelial 
masses. In the growing point the exocortex is marked off from 
the mediocortex in that the mycelial masses form very much 
* At the base of one root I found the rudiment of a lateral root. It was 
forming in the pericycle and had a distinct digestive sac. 
