2IO BOTANICAL GAZETTE [September 



The foregoing brief account of previous research, touching upon 

 the problem at hand, gives a foundation upon which to work and 

 from which to develop further lines of investigation. 



Material and methods 



Material used in the study of the problem was collected by 

 Dr. Chamberlain near Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia. 

 I take this occasion to express my appreciation of his generosity 

 in giving up material from his own private collection for my 

 study, and of his helpful suggestions during the investigation. 

 The plant collected by Chamberlain was about 3 m. in height, 

 as it occurred in nature, and bore at its tip a cluster of megasporo- 

 phylls surrounded by a crown of foliage leaves. Two pieces were 

 taken from the stem, one at the apex and one near the base. 

 The former piece was the entire tip, including the upper 6 or 8 

 inches of the axis, together with foliage leaves and megasporo- 

 phylls; the latter piece was a cross-section of the stem at a height 

 of less than a foot above the soil, and was cut with a thickness 

 of about 3 inches. Both pieces were put into formalin, where 

 they have remained since the time of their collection in November 

 1911. . 



Pieces of the stem were thoroughly washed in water and then 

 allowed to stand in 50 per cent hydrofluoric acid for a period 

 of 4 weeks. Following this treatment, methods were employed 

 which were based upon the fundamentals of technic as published 

 by Chamberlain^ in 1916. Such variations in these principles 

 as were used grew out of the kindly suggestions of Miss Langdon 

 of this laboratory. To her my thanks are given for her valued 

 assistance. 



Investigation 



GROSS TOPOGR.A.PHY 



As would be expected, the pith of this specimen is relatively 

 large. Its diameter at the stem base measures 5.3 cm., whereas 

 the diameter of the entire stem at the base is only 20 cm. At 

 the tip, where the gross diameter is 17.8 cm., the pith has a diam- 



' Chamberlain, C. J., Methods of plant histology. 1916. 



