208 DEVELOPMENT OF 



at present been observed. By means of these hairs the plant is 

 firmly fixed to the surrounding soil, and the roots of other plants 

 are often matted in, and penetrate the hollows in the root which 

 close on them, so that they seem to take their origin from 

 it. This may here give rise to the branched roots figured in 

 Nees von Esenbeck's Gen. heft. 5. Careful washing soon shows 

 their real nature ; no organic connexion exists, and there is no 

 reason to believe the plant parasitic. Indeed, it admits of culti- 

 vation in pots where no other plants accompany it. 



The tuberiform roots are threaded by a central bundle of vessels, 

 which is gradually attenuated at the lower end where the youngest 

 elementary parts are found. If more than one is present, they 

 are all equally organised at the time of flowering. They do not 

 exhibit any trace of dissolution. They belong, therefore, to a 

 single annual period, as they also spring from one axis. 



If we now examine the tuft of leaves, we find that it stands 

 near the peduncle, and indeed the axil formed with it by the 

 uppermost dried leaf. This incloses also the peduncle with the 

 lowest part of its short sheath. This also is terminal, the tuft of 

 leaves on the contrary axillary, as is proved also by the arrange- 

 ment of its leaves. On the basal axis of the flowering plant 

 below the leaves are generally some small buds, scarce a line 

 long, covered by a sheath ; they are the axillary produce of lower 

 and earlier leaves. One of these sometimes produces a tuft of 

 leaves, so that two are present ; more rarely the main bud near 

 the peduncle still remains in its contracted state at the time of 

 flowering, so that no new leaves are present. 



The first or lowest scale-like leaf about two to three lines high, 

 stands with its back towards the peduncle ; with this the second 

 alternates, but not strongly, since the leaves are spirally arranged. 

 It is large, but has not so perfect a lamina as the following. If the 

 second is torn off to the base, two light green roundish bodies are 

 visible ; they glimmer through the membranous base of the third 

 and fourth leaves, in whose respective axils they stand. It seldom 

 happens that one only comes to perfection. This swelling is 

 often visible in the axil of the third leaf only ; they are the first 

 rudiments of the tuberiform roots, and a difference in size is often 

 visible from their earliest appearance. In the axils of the two 

 upper leaves there are either rudiments of their roots or minute 

 buds. In the axils of all the upper leaves which are only 

 partially grown, we find equally little buds, if not equally at the 

 time of flowering ; the point of most consequence is that in the 



