KNOWLEDGE OF MONOCOTYXLEDONOUS SAPROPHYTES. 191 
entire absence of a root, in the mature state of the plant. And 
it may at once be stated that Z. nutans produces on its rhizome 
numerous hairs which function as root-hairs, as does the European 
form. To amplify Blume’s description, it may be added that 
large old tubers become hollow by a splitting process taking 
place in the central ground-tissue. Fig. 2 represents a tuber of 
size below the average. 
All my specimens had inflorescence-axes clearly developed. 
Histology of the Rhizome. 
(i.) Scale-leaves (Pl. VI. fig. 2). 
Selecting one of the smaller tubers, which was apparently 
covered by a brownish felt-work, and displayed no distinct 
annulation, sections revealed the following appearances :—Outside 
the rhizome is a densely matted mass of fungal hyphae, some 
of which are dead and discoloured. The scale-leaves are broad 
and completely invest the rhizome. Not only do they com- 
pletely clothe the rhizome but, except at their apices, they are 
also so closely pressed against, and adherent to, the axis that 
on first examination the scales appear as if they were merely 
the epidermis and a few cortical layers of the axis; and their 
axillary buds present the appearauce of endogenous buds. At 
this stage the entire epidermis of the axis is adherent to the 
upper (inner) epidermis of the scale-leaves, so that not only 
force, but the employment of reagents, such as eau de Javelle, 
is necessary to separate the two, even in the thinnest sections 
to be made by hand. No air-containing spaces between this 
inner epidermis of the scale and the epidermis of the stem 
could be made out. The outer walls of both of these layers are 
very thin and cuticularized. Thus the solitary points at which 
the rhizome communicates directly with the exterior, by cells 
with walls which are not cuticularized, are the lines of attach- 
ment of the scale-leaves. The lower (outer) epidermis of the 
scale-leaf is made up of large cells with thin walls only feebly 
cuticularized. But very many of these cells grow into enormously 
elongated narrow hairs with thin, non-cuticularized walls, which 
indubitably function as root-hairs. The hairs are coated with 
particles of humus which cling closely to them, and they are 
sometimes possessed of short blunt branches (Pl. V. fig. 10). In 
addition many of the hairs contain fungal hyphe (Pl. V. fig. 9) 
which are presumably mycorhizal in nature—for protoplasm is 
