368 Transactions. — Botany. 



tudinal purple lines ; margin furnished with a narrow pink 

 transparent wing on each side. 



Leaves cauline, entire, narrow-ovate, broad-ovate or almost 

 rotund, at first opposite, afterwards distichous through flatten- 

 ing of stem, shortly petioled, dull dark rather glaucous green 

 on upper surface, much paler glaucous on under- surface, 

 stipulate with two membranous broadly triangular hairy 

 stipules ; margin edged with reddish-brown ; midrib sunken 

 on upper keeled on under surface ; veins sometimes swollen 

 on upper surface and much reticulating ; apex retuse or 

 emarginate ; petiole jointed at junction of lamina and midrib. 



1st leaf 6 mm. x 4 mm., in one plant much larger and 

 rotund-emarginate. 



2nd leaf sometimes rather smaller than 1st leaf. 



3rd leaf a little larger than 1st leaf. 



4th leaf 1 cm. x 8 mm. 



Later developed leaves more hairy than those preceding. 



Further development : In the largest seedling examined, 

 5 cm. high, flattened hoary cladodes are being developed, 

 longest 2 cm. long, with four leaves similar to but smaller 

 than those on the main stem ; laminae semi-horizontal. 



Leafy cladodes on adult plant (Plate XXXL, fig. 13) : 

 Under the influence of shade, moisture, and shelter, also 

 perhaps of heat, leaf}' cladodes are developed with extra- 

 ordinary rapidity, growing as much as 8 cm. in a space of 

 four weeks, with internodes 2-5 cm. long, 5 mm. broad, 3 mm. 

 thick, shallowly grooved ; grooves filled with white, slender, 

 weak, straggly hau-s ; ridges glabrous ; nodes much notched, 

 swollen, and rounded, from each of which arises a small, 

 narrow, linear-oblong, emarginate, fleshy leaf, cuneate at the 

 base, with sides infiexed and surface reflexed from centre. 

 Similar cladodes are developed sparingly on plants in their 

 natural habitats during early spring. 



Leafless cladode on adult plant deeply grooved ; grooves 

 separated by longitudinal ridges 1-5 mm. wide, yellow towards 

 margin and marked down centre by a green line ; grooves 

 filled with dense white matted tomentum ; internodes 1*5 cm. 

 long X 9 mm. broad x 6 mm. thick ; nodes marked by deep 

 notches furnished with two depauperated stipules, or 0. 

 Such a cladode was developed in my garden on a plant in 

 the open air, partly exposed to north-west and south-west 

 wind and full sunshine, while its sister plants — one in a 

 shade-house and the other under a bell-glass, and kept very 

 moist — developed leafy cladodes as described above. 



The development of G. crassicaule is of great interest. 

 Apart from its being one of the most singular plants of which 

 our rather anomalous flora can boast, it is, although wndely 



