THE LEAVES OF BEYERIA LINEARIS. 85 
A short time ago a peculiar look about its foliage attracted 
attention, it appearing to be plentifully interspersed with large 
greenish flowers! On examination it turned out that these 
pseudo-floral shapes were nothing but very curiously regular 
malformations of the leaves, bearing some resemblance (especially 
where the plant is dwarfed) to some papilionaceous flowers with 
the wings removed, and also to the galea of certain species of 
Pterostylis. 
The midrib of the leaf is strongly developed and recurved to- 
wards the stalk ; the margin has evidently been retarded in growth, 
but, on the contrary, the space between it and the midrib greatly 
extended, viz. from 3-10 times its dimension, over which the lateral 
ribs extend in the normal leaf, also strongly developed. Thus 
a kind of inverted pitcher is produced, whose trumpet-shaped 
opening is turned downwards or sideways, never upwards. (See 
figs. 1-4.) Their size varies according to age, development, &c., 
but ranges between 4 and ? of an inch in length, and about one 
third of that measure in the other directions. Their pale green 
to light yellow tint contrasts well with the dark glabrous green 
of the upper, and the white of the lower surfaces of the leaves, 
and renders them very conspicuous, while strongly marked ribs 
render their resemblance to an orchidaceous flower rather striking. 
It 1s to be noticed, however, that the interior shows scarcely any 
trace of the ribs. I cannot remember having ever noticed similar 
regular malformations of the leaves in the two other forms of 
Beyeria mentioned above; it appears therefore that they are 
peculiar to Beyeria linearis. 
What causes them? Apparently a minute fungus inhabiting 
the interior, and therefore the protected part, of the pitcher. Ex- 
amining this, there may be noticed a delicate whitish dust, as if it 
were slightly sprinkled with flour. The most deeply seated por- 
tions in some specimens are also seen to be thickly covered with 
microscopic threads crossing each other at and near right angles 
(somewhat resembling spiders’ web), and entangling in great num- 
bers rod-like brownish-yellow spores scarcely visible even under a 
magnifying power of above 100. The length of these spores 
exceeds the width; and the ends are not rounded, but sharply 
angular. 
Seraping a minute portion of the surface outside of the area 
where this web predominated (say =’; of an inch) and submit- 
ting it toa magnifying power of about 220, the whole field of 
