600 



Transactions. 



Juvenile Forms. 



The mature fruit-bearing form has leaves 5-7-f oliate, with serrate edges . 

 The seedlings show, however, that, as in many other New Zealand plants, 

 this condition is not the original one. The cotyledons are usually small 

 and rounded (occasionally longer and narrower), with entire margins 

 (fig. 1, A). These remain till eight leaves are formed. The first foliage 

 leaves are unifoliate, and, though produced singly, can easily be regarded 

 as pairs. They are larger than the cotyledons, and have serrate margins 

 (fig. 1, A-E). Four other pairs of leaves are produced closely resembling 

 these, but when the sixth pair is produced it is found to be trifoliate, the 



Long narrow cotyledons 



Stem ridged 

 4-sided 



FlG. 1. — Stages in leaf -development in Xothopanax arboreum. 



two lateral leaflets being much smaller than the terminal leaflet. The 

 seventh and eighth pairs are also trifoliate (fig. 1, F-G). When the ninth 

 pair appears it is seen to be 5-foliate (fig. 1, H). The terminal leaflet is the 

 largest, and the two lowest the smallest, as in the trifoliate leaves. In the 

 mature forms the leaves are 5-7-foliate, and this condition is attained at 

 about this stage ; some when they have achieved the 5-foliate condition do 

 not alter further, others form 6- or 7-foliate leaves straight away (fig. 1, I). 

 In the specimens examined the variations were for the most part constant, 

 though in one or two the sixth pair of leaflets was normally trifoliate, 

 the seventh returning to the unifoliate condition. 



