284 Transactions. — Botany. 



leaves, thus raising the horizontal laminae so that they do not 

 shade the leaves below, whose petioles, being given off at a 

 wider angle, also help to throw the lower leaves out of the 

 shade of the upper ones. (In older seedling plants the lower- 

 most leaves have in addition their laminae bent' downwards to- 

 wards the ground for the same purpose, while the very upper- 

 most are on a level and almost horizontal. In the youngest 

 plants the length of the lower internodes as compared with 

 the very short apical ones serves the same purpose.) 



Laminae of 3rd pair of leaves (fig. 23) 3T5 mm. x 3 mm., 

 broadly ovate ; on each margin is one large tooth with a 

 blunt swollen apex ; petioles two-thirds the length of laminae ; 

 other features of leaves as before. 



4th pair of leaves similar in most respects to those pre- 

 viously described, but with the toothing still more strongly 

 marked. 



Stem terete, with two opposite rows of hairs on each in- 

 ternode similar to the leaf-hairs, those on the one internode 

 alternating with those on the next above ; 1st internode 

 2 mm. long, 2nd internode 1-9 mm. long, and so on, the 

 internodes becoming much shorter towards the growing- 

 point of the shoot. 



Further development (as observed from older seedlings) : 

 The leaves continue for some time of the same type. 



Anomalous seedling : One of the seedlings having coty- 

 ledons and three pairs of leaves ; these latter are quite entire, 

 and of same type as the 1st pair of leaves. 



Plant with 18 pairs of leaves : In this plant, which may be 

 taken as a typical seedling, the leaves from the 5th pair to the 

 9th pair (fig. 25) gradually increase in size, reaching a maxi- 

 mum of (lamina) 55 mm. by 3 - 75 mm., with petiole 1*75 mm., 

 and having one or two teeth on each margin. The midrib is 

 now quite prominent on the under- surface of the leaf, which 

 in nearly every seedling (with hardly an exception) is dark- 

 purple. The petioles are rather broad, channelled on upper 

 surface, swollen and connate at base, where it is stained 

 reddish-purple in a ring round the leaf-base. Commencing at 

 about the 10th leaf and proceeding upwards, the leaves 

 gradually decrease in size, and are much narrower than those 

 below, otherwise they are as in the previously described 

 leaves. The particular plant described above has developed 

 a lateral shoot from the axil of the now withered cotyledon ; 

 all the leaves of this shoot are of the same type as the 1st 

 pair of leaves. The internodes are short, + 1 mm., and 

 partly sheathed by the leaf-base. 



Besides the Mount Isabel seedlings, I have also some older 

 ones grown from seed collected from a plant in my garden, 

 originally from Mount Maungatua, Taieri, Otago, which was 



