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appendages of the mother organ. The stem must first be present, 
then comes the leaf. For this formation we must have a name, as 
we cannot consider it a stem of any grade or rank. 
This may be still farther illustrated by the examination of a 
plant like Mitella or Chara. Here the main branch sends off side- 
branches which in turn develop other side-branches, but these dif- 
fer in rank, the higher the number, or the farther its distance from 
the main stem, the smaller the branch. There is no difference in 
principle but only in rank, so there is no need for term leaf here. 
There is but one idea, the repetition of the main stem, but on a 
smaller scale. 
This makes the idea’ of leaf and stem a fixed one which holds 
through all the different groups of plants. The fact that the B/a- 
sia thallus is not homologous with the leafy fern stem has nothing 
whatever to do with the idea of the leaf. This is entirely inde- 
pendent of phylogenetic considerations, has to do simply with the 
ontogenetic facts, consists either of stem and leaf, or thallus. Ac- 
cording to Professor Schwendener also, the transition forms are 
not so distinct as Goebel makes them. As soon as a leaf-like 
Organ appears, the mother organ is to be named stem; so in 
Marchantia, that which is ordinarily called thallus is really stem, 
as it is that member from which another member unlike itself 
originates. 
This conception of the relation between leaf and stem not only 
obviates the difficulty to which Goebel refers in defining the word 
leaf, but agrees perfectly with the manner in which it is supposed 
to originate. Those who accept this view, therefore, find no in- 
consistency in retaining the word cormophyte, neither in the use 
of the terms stem and leaf as applied to the organs of the moss 
plant. : 
New York, June 1, 1896. 
Botanical Notes. 
CasSIA PROBOSCIDEA n.sp. Cassia sectioni Oncolobio pertinens, 
erecta, herbacea (?), glabra vel leviter glanduloso-pubescens. Fo- 
liola 4-5-juga, ovata, anguste acuta, marginibus ciliata, 1.5-3 cm. 
longa. Petiola basiglandulosa, glandulis hemisphericis, sessilibus. 
