C. H. Ostenfeld: Contributions to West Australian Botany. I. 27 



into a new plant, which at maturity is detached and begins an 

 independent cycle of existence". 



This peculiar behaviour was doubted by Ascherson, who in 

 his paper of 1882 gave a quite different explanation of the mat- 

 ter. Nevertheless, as very convincingly shown by I. M, Black, 

 Mr. Tepper was right, and I may at once add that I can confirm 

 Mr. Black's statements. We have in the propagation of Cym. 

 antarctica a very interesting and unique kind of vivipary. 



When C. A. Acardh (1822) described his Amphibolis zosteræ- 

 folia he mentioned that at the base of the plant there were 

 peculiar comb-shaped horny bracts ("Basis e tribus vel quatuor 

 squamis pectinatis cuneatis, erectis, semiunguem altis, osseis, albis 

 constituta"). They formed a kind of cup from the inner part of 

 which the stem arose. The nature of this "comb-cup" remained 

 unexplained for a long time. Tepper evidently considered it as 

 belonging to the female flower, as it makes up the basal part of 

 what he took to be the "new plant". But Ascherson (1882, 1. c.) 

 rejects this explanation completely. He gives a detailed descrip- 

 tion of the comb and its relation to the stem and the ordinary 

 leaves. The comb consist of 4 lobes, 2 broader and 2 narrower, 

 which he regards as leaves transformed into peculiar scales adap- 

 ted to the vegetative propagation of the plant. This propagation 

 takes place in the following way (as observed by Tepper): The 

 shoot breaks off beneath the comb and floats in the water until 

 the comb acting as an anchor happens to hook on to some body 

 on the sea-bottom, thus fastening the shoot which then takes 

 root and grows into a new plant. 



Ascherson's explanation of the vegetative nature of the comb 

 was adopted universally, the more so as his description of the 

 young female flower quoted above did not show any point which 

 justifies a connection between the flower and the comb-shoot. It 

 was not until I. M. Black found a series of successive stages of 

 the development of the comb, that it became evident that Ascher- 

 son was quite wrong and that Tepper's observation and conclu- 

 sion — incomplete as they are — were right. The comb-lobes 

 are in reality outgrowths on the outer side of the pericarp, and 

 the shoot which arises from the comb is a seedling from an embryo 

 which begins its growth at once. Not before the seedling has 

 reached a considerable size (6 — 10 cm), does the "shoot" break 

 off, still with the "comb"-pericarp girding its basal part and 

 serving as an anchor. It floats in the water for a time, and in 

 this way the species becomes dispersed by the currents. 



