Or THE LEAVES OF EPILOBIUM MONTANTJM. 191 



ages, which, so far as he has been able to ascertain, are unde- 

 scribed. They occur on the apices of the younger and nascent 

 leaves, and may be readily observed, assisted by a simple lens, by 

 removing the outer fleshy, alternately opposite pairs, until but 

 from two to four or five pairs remain around the punctum vege- 

 tationis. 



The outer leaves provided with the * gland' present it as a 

 yellow-brown, or brown-black apical process, evidently evanescing 

 and about to fall away. These glands, which are somewhat ovate- 

 conical or oblong in form, are erecto-patent, or deflexed towards 

 the back of the leaves ; thus, when seen in profile or from above, 

 they radiate from the axis of the sprout. The external leaf-scales, 

 which, doubtless, in their early condition had been in like manner 

 furnished with these organs, do not exhibit any very perceptible 

 scar at the point of their former attachment. The ' glands' 

 appear to be in their matured and perfect condition on but the 

 very young leaves, the contents of the large cells composing 

 them assuming, more especially towards the base and middle 

 portion, a yellowish-brown colour, and at the same time becoming 

 more opake, and probably granular, as they remove from the 

 termination of the axis. The perfect 'gland' consists of nume- 

 rous, comparatively large cells, filled with a clear watery cell-sap, 

 becoming yellowish on the application of tincture of iodine. In 

 some cases perhaps they are almost pedicellate, though generally 

 they may be termed sessile, and resting upon the apex of the leaf. 

 They appear in almost the earliest stage of the nascent leaf, form- 

 ing, when the succeeding pair becomes visible, an appendage of 

 considerable relative size. 



The minute buds in the axils of the cataphyllary leaves of these 

 rosettes are also furnished with these organs. 



Mr. Oliver considers the function and purpose of these glands, 

 as in many and parallel cases in structural botany, to be enveloped 

 in obscurity. He suggests that it would be desirable that some 

 observer having at hand fresh specimens of allied JEpilobia and 

 other Onagracece producing 'rosettes' towards the cold season, 

 should take the pains to institute a more comparative exami- 

 nation of these structures, which possess, he thinks, considerable 

 interest. 



Mr. Oliver's Note was accompanied by illustrative microscopical 

 drawings of the structures indicated. 



