GNETALES— GNETUM 



409 



extreme as in Pinus or Ginkgo, and in Gnetum gnemon the two kinds 

 look much alike. In climbing species, leaves are borne only on 

 shoots of limited growth. On 

 the long shoots the leaves are 

 usually reduced to scales. All 

 leaves are opposite and decus- 

 sate. There is a short petiole, 

 with no stipules, and the 

 leaves vary so much in size 

 and shape that such charac- 

 ters are of little value in taxon- 

 omy; but they are so typical- 

 ly dicotyledonous in appear- 

 ance that a botanist, not fa- 

 miliar with Gnetum, would 

 guess the plant to be a dicotyl 

 (fig. 382). The plant shown 

 in the figure was raised from 

 a seed at the University of 

 Chicago. When it was about 

 20 years old and 4 inches in 

 diameter, it was moved from 

 the old greenhouse to the new, 

 where it survived only a few 

 months. A cutting is still alive 

 and is about 2 inches in diam- 

 eter. Many cuttings were 

 made, but only two were suc- 

 cessful. However, as in many 

 conifers, there is occasional 

 vegetative propagation. One 

 season, several leaves from 

 the plant already mentioned 

 produced buds at the margins, 

 as in Bryophyllum. Some of the buds had a couple of leaves, but none 

 developed beyond this stage. A similar case was noted at the botan- 

 ical garden at Utrecht. 



Fig. 382. — Gnetum gnemon: young plant 

 raised from seed at the University of Chi- 

 cago. The plant is about two years old. — 

 From Coulter and Chamberlain, Morphol- 

 ogy of Gymnosperms^^ (University of Chicago 

 Press). 



