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Transactions. 



brown portion finally falls off, or. if the plant is at the water's edge, is 

 soon washed off, .and the branches appear green again. They are, however, 

 much smaller, having lost all palisade and aqueous tissue. The green 

 colour is due to chloroplasts in the phelloderm and the phloem cylinder. 

 Chloroplasts are also present, although to a less extent, in the fibrous cells 

 of the wood and in the outer portion of the medulla. The development 

 of chlorophyll corresponds to that in several desert-plants mentioned by 

 Austin (9) (see fig. 8, c). 



This withering of tissue is due to the formation of cork. The inner 

 layer of pericycle, which is now several cells thick, gives rise to phellogen. 

 Cork tissue and phelloderm are formed in the usual way. The phelloderm 

 in this plant even more than usual shows great uniformity in the length of 

 cells. Chloroplasts are present, and starch, which is never found to be 

 exhausted. The granules are larger than those of the phloem cylinder. 



Flowers. 



SaUcornia australis flowers from December to March. The flowers 

 are wind-pollinated. All the branches may be fertile, and bear small 



Fig. 9. — a, Branch showing withered inflorescence, two-fifths natural size ; 6, flower- 

 ing-branch, two-fifths natural size ; c, bud, X 3 ; d, flowers, X 6 ; e, transverse 

 section of flower — (1) with one stamen, (2) with two; /. persistent perianth; 

 g, hooked hairs on testa ; h, pistil ; j, pollen-grain ; k, longitudinal section of 

 flowering- branch taken in July, five months before flowers are mature. 



insignificant flowers at their apex ; these flowers are placed side by side in 

 the axils of the leaves, and form an almost complete ring. The leaf-bases 

 in the flowering-branches are developed only to a comparatively small 

 extent. 



The number of flowers in each axil, as a rule, varies from five to ten ; 

 occasionally there are as many as sixteen, and then they form a double 

 row round the branch. 



