378 YOUNGKEN— ON THE MYRICACEAE 



Other respects the herbarium material studied closely resembles the 

 leaves of M. cerifera. 



Comptonia asplenifolia, L, Aiton 



The leaves of this plant are alternate, inserted in a 2/5 spiral, petio- 

 late, stipulate, pinnately-veined, distinctly pinnatifid, showing 4-15 

 pairs of sub-reniform pinnules measuring 2-14 mm. long and 2-10 mm. 

 wide, separated from each other by a sinus extending almost to the mid- 

 rib, membranous, deciduous, with membranous caducous stipules (Plate 

 82. Fig. 5). They vary in shape from lanceolate to elliptic-ovate and 

 in size from 10-138 mm. long to from 2-22 mm. wide. Each lobe, as 

 previously shown by Chevalier, receives ordinarily two secondary nerves 

 and two demi nerves arising from a thread corresponding to the indenta- 

 tion, which thread, arriving at the sinus, divides into two branches dis- 

 tributed to two adjacent lobes. More often the sinus extends to within 



1 or 2 mm. from the mid-rib. The small secondary nerve which nor- 

 mally divides into two has not the time to bifurcate and is usually thrown 

 into the superior lobe. The result is that all the lobes have 3, 4 or 5 

 secondary nerves of approximately equal importance. Occasionally 



2 lobes completely fuse to form an auricle with a maxunum length of 

 12 mm. This receives a double number of nerves. The stipules are 

 auriculate or semi saggitate, up to 13 mm. long, gibbous at their base, 

 acuminate at their summit, hairy around their margin. The petiole 

 is sub-cylindric, thin hairy and showing a sparse covering of glands 

 (contrary to Chevalier's statement that glands are absent). The 

 pinnules are entire or showing occasionally a tooth, with a thin hairy 

 margin, which is not incurved below. The upper surface is dark green 

 tomentose in young leaves, becoming nearly glabrous as the leaves attain 

 maturity. 



The lower surface is light green, thin hairy in the young state of the 

 leaf but dropping as the leaf ages. Both surfaces show shining yellow 

 glands, not very numerous. These are somewhat more frequent on 

 the lower than on the upper surface. 



Histology 



Myrica cerifera, L 



The upper epidermis consists of a single layer of cells whose outer 



walls are strongly cuticularized and have rectilinear or very slightly 



curvilinear vertical walls. Chevalier (7, p. 113) errs in stating that 



Comptonia is the only species whose upper epidermis shows cells with 



