1913] HOLM—PHRYMA LEPTOSTACHYA 307 
some points worthy of consideration drawn from the seedling and 
compared with the mature stage. Moreover, the origin of the 
secondary tissues in the stem deserve attention, besides the general 
structure of the root system. 
The seedling 
In its native haunts seedlings of Phryma are difficult to be found. 
Being a truly sciaphilous plant and developing only a small number 
of seeds in proportion to the size of the plant, Phryma depends on 
dispersing its seeds, or better the fruits, by animals. The long, 
slender teeth of the persistent calyx are hooked at the tip, and are 
likely to adhere to fleece and clothing like a bur. Thus the fruits 
become scattered, and the seedlings are so very much like those of 
other sylvan types with opposite leaves that they may be mistaken 
for entirely different genera, of Labiatae and Compositae, for 
instance, when their cotyledons have dropped. 
Fig. 1 represents the seedling (natural size) of P. leptostachya, 
and it is noticed at once that the cotyledons are hypogeic, and that 
they remain inclosed within the seed, surrounded by the thin 
pericarp. There is only a very short hypocotyl, and the primary 
root (R) is relatively short; a much longer secondary root (7) soon 
develops from beneath the insertion of the cotyledons and between 
them, as may be seen in fig. 2 (r). In the axils of the cotyledons 
buds are already visible at this very young stage (B in fig. 2), but 
they remain dormant during the first season. The aerial shoot of 
the seedling consists of a long, cylindric, glabrous, and erect epicoty] 
(Ep. in fig. 1), and a few short pubescent internodes with leaves of 
approximately the same outline as those of the mature plant. 
Characteristic of the seedling of Phryma, therefore, are the hypogeic 
cotyledons, the long epicotyl, and the early development of a 
secondary root, exceeding the primary in length and thickness. By 
this structure the seedling is easily distinguished from the corre- 
sponding stage of most of the other sylvan types with opposite 
leaves; for in the Compositae, for instance, the cotyledons are epigeic; 
and among the Labiatae, Collinsonia’ is the only North American 
*Compare Medicinal plants of North America. Merck’s Report. New York. 
April 1909. 
