AND HISTOLOGY OF PIPER BETLE. 350 
insertion is alternate and distichous. All the leaves are of one kind. 
The buds are axillary. The nodes get tumid when old (Pl. 17. fig. 13). 
The leader is never observed to bear flowers. 
Middle and Top Branches—These are sympodial in structure. Те 
flowers are restricted to them. Besides normal foliage, they bear scale- 
leaves reduced to sheaths. 
Their disposition is almost horizontal. Each sympodial section consists of 
two internodes (Pl. 17. fig. 6). The lower one is extremely short, averaging 
only 1 mm. in length. The node over this small internode bears a sheathing 
scale, in the axil of which there is a tiny bud. The second internode is a 
normal one, measuring 5-7 em. The node over it bears a normal leaf. 
Text-fig. 1. 
\ | J 
aleLeat = 7 NI/ 
Female Leaf} 
The axis after this turns sideways, either to form a minute extremely slender 
cylindrical evanescent body 5 mm. in length (text-fig. 1, points d, g, and Л) 
or an inflorescence which either drops off prematurely (as it would from 
point e in the figure) or develops to its full size. The minute body is 
obviously an aborted inflorescence. An almost typical lateral branch is shown 
in text-fig. 1. If the node at е had developed as at g it would represent 
a quite typical form. It starts, as all branches do, with the abbreviated 
internode. Then there should be two elongated internodes (in the figure 
there are three). followed by a regular alternation of short and long 
internodes. At the second node, where the first normal leaf of the branch 
2k2 
