BY ALEX. G. HAMILTON. 761 



Lundstrom, quite reasonably, expresses surprise that domatia 

 liave attracted so little notice. And hardly less remarkable is it 

 th;it up to the present time, the text books ha\e still nothing, or 

 so little to say about them or their significance. Nevertheless, 

 they were long ago noticed in at least one Australian plant, but 

 having been relegated to the category of "glands" — " that word 

 of many meanings," as De Bary remarks— their nature seemed to 

 be looked upon as settled. For example, in Vol. li. of Curtis's 

 Botanical Magazine, published in 1824, there is a figure (PI. 2488) 

 of Ciissus [Viiisi antarctica [ = F. Baudiniana, F.v.M.], in which 

 domatia are distinctly shown, while the text mentions " foliis 

 ovatis laxe serratis giabriusculis subtus glandulosis." The 

 synonymy also shows that at a still earlier period Poiret, because 

 of the presence of these supposed glands, had described the species 

 under the name of C. glandulosa, "foliis ovatis glabris laxe 

 dentato-serratis nervis basi glandulosis." 



In 1879, at a Meeting of the Linnean Society of London, 

 " Mr. R. IrM^n Lynch directed attention to a growing example 

 from Kew Gardens, and some of the dried leaves of Xanthosoma 

 ajypehdiculattim, on the under surface of which |.eculiar pouch- 

 like excrescences emanate from the midrib. This pseudo- 

 monstrosity is of remarkably constant occurrence.'"* If these 

 excrescences be, as I think they are, domatia, the 23lant (an 

 Aroid) is remarkable as being the only instance known of the 

 occurrence of domatia in the Monocotyledons. Mr. Lynch, too, is 

 the first, apparently, who saw anything uncommon in the 

 structures. 



A few other references to what would now be called domatia 

 may be given. 



Trimen says of Psijchotria hisidcata, "Lateral veins often with 

 very deep pits in their axils, which appear as warts on the upjDer 

 surface." (" Handbook of the Flora of Ceylon.") 



* Journ. of Bot. April, 1S79, p. 125, but not noticed in the Proceedinga 

 of the Society. 



