Hollowat. — Studies in the New Zealand Species of Lycopodiuin. 91 



phylls. Fig. 21 shows one such plant, in which the two growing ends were 

 swollen and slightly globular in form, each being marked oft* from the rest 

 of the rhizome by a slight constriction. There is no doubt that both these 

 branches would sooner or later become independent individuals. 



At least two other instances were observed in which two swollen and 

 vividly green branches were present on the end of the rhizome. Three plant- 

 lets with branched rhizomes were found on which two, and in one case three, 

 separate stems had arisen. It would seem that the original rhizome persists 

 intact well over one season, although its empty cells show that it no longer 

 functions as an absorbent or storage organ before by its decay it sets free 

 the daughter plants. It may be noted here that in almost all young 

 developing plants of this species, as also in L. laterale, the protocormous 

 rhizome remains attached to the base of the plant-stem till the latter attains 

 a length of an inch or more, although it probably ceases to function soon 

 after the development of the first root. Fig. 22 shows the end view of 

 the rhizome of a young plant of L. ramulosum on whose branching end 

 three stems had arisen. It will be seen that the formation of the first root 

 had just been initiated at the base of each of the three stems, the three 

 roots having been developed simultaneously. 



As well as the vegetative reproduction of the protocormous rhizome 

 of L. ramulosum by means of the isolation of daughter branches, reproduc- 

 tion sometimes takes place by the formation of bulbils on the end or on some 

 other part of the rhizome. A figure of a rhizome with two such bulbils 

 was given in Part I of these studies (Holloway, 1916, p. 269), and is repro- 

 duced in the present paper (fig. 23). In another instance quite a small 

 and comparatively young unbranched rhizome was found on which were 

 borne two such bulbils (fig. 24). These bulbils are very simple swollen 

 globular protuberances of the tissues of the rhizome. They are vivid green 

 in colour, and are surmounted by one or two young green protophylls. The 

 colour of the bulbils is in striking contrast to the opaque yellow appearance 

 of the parent rhizome. Not a few instances of a group of very young plants, 

 consisting of from two to seven individuals in different stages of develop- 

 ment, were found, where there was every appearance of their having arisen 

 as bulbils from an old original rhizome. In several of these groups an 

 old broken-down rhizome was in close proximity to the young plantlets. 

 Although many of these plantlets were exceedingly small and young, in no 

 case was a prothallus present, this fact indicating that they had arisen 

 by vegetative reproduction. It was noticed that these detached adventi- 

 tious plantlets almost invariably consisted each of a basal globular mass of 

 opaque brownish-looking tissues with one or two semi-decayed protophylls, 

 whilst at some point or other on the plantlet there was a vividly green area 

 which was obviously the growing-point of the plantlet. In some cases 

 this green area was in the form of a bluntly rounded protuberance of the 

 tuberous portion of the plant, and in others it was a single protophyll or a 

 very voung developing protophyll. In connection with this it may be noted 

 that a possible interpretation of the detached leaves bearing adventitious 

 buds, described above in Section VI, is that they had become detached 

 from an old rhizome, or from a bulbil produced vegetatively from such a 

 rhizome. The fact that these bulbils become brownish in colour after being 

 detached from the parent rhizome, and that their growth becomes localized 

 in one spot, seems to indicate that their development is arrested for a time, 

 and that they act as resting bodies till the external conditions are svritable 

 for their further development and for the initiation of a stem-axis. 



