4IO I'.ULDJLS (;.\" THE SUBTKRKANEAN ORGANS OF PLANTS. 



produced four and the other one five flowers, the first two of 

 each plant had withered withotit having set fruit ( PI. 1 1, 3). 



Albiica viridiflora. — Of two plants gathered near Mowbray 

 in (Jctober, 1915, each one possessed about 20 to 30 small bulbils 

 around the principal bulb. The first flowers had just opened, 

 hence I do not know if they would have produced fruit. 



Gladiolus grandis. — Two plants from Frenchhoek enclosed 

 numerous bulbill?e (small cormlets) among the fibrous covers 

 of the main corm. The only flower of each plant was still fresh 

 when gathered. Some other specimens of this species were 

 without bulbils, but some gathered near Capetown possessed them 

 as well. 



Gladiolus cuspidatns. — A few plants gathered by Dr. W. F. 

 Purcell neaer Retreat, on the Cape Flat:?, showed impoverished 

 flowers, but numerous bulbils between the scales of the corm. 

 In this case the abortion of the flowers was evidently due to the 

 attack of a fungus (Uromyces gladioli). Leaves and stalks of 

 some plants were so badly infested with this rust that the spike 

 did not contain a single normal flower, and in some cases it 

 possessed no flowers at all. On a few which were in a less in- 

 jured condition the' flowers were of normal size, but none had 

 set seeds. Dr. Purcell informed me that in some years he had 

 not been able to find a single well-develo])ed flower owing to 

 the ravages of this ftmgus. 



.liitholyaa rcvoluta. — -Several plants gathered at Camps Bay 

 in Ttily, 1916. possessed a large number of small bulbillae among 

 the old scales of the corm, quite similar to those of Gladiolus 

 grandis* 



Morcca viscaria (yellow variety). — From Cape Flats, Octo- 

 ber. 1915.^ — Niunerous bulbils on the corm. The nearly allied 

 M. hifnminosa, gathered in the same localit}'. showed no bulbilke. 



II. Bulbils on the Aerlvl Organs. 



Oniifhogaluin tliyrsoidcs. — Groups of small green bulbils 

 formed on the luiderside of a leaf. Flowers a])parently normal, 

 but no seeds formed. 



IVatsonia ii'idi folia. — In a i)atch of plants gathered near 

 Hoj)efiel(l (Cape Province) all stems bore bulbils (cormlets) in 

 the axils of the cauline sheaths. Some of these plants were 

 transferred to the author's garden at Capetown. They flower 

 every year, Init do not produce any fruit, althoug'h sun-birds 

 often visit theuL All jiroduce little cormlets of medium size 

 in the axils of the cauline bracts, t 



Homcria niiiiiata. — Fre(|uent t)n the Cape Flats, near Cape- 

 towiL Numerous bulbils on the corm and at the nodes of the 

 stem. Flowers numerous, but seed-vessels a])parently always 

 empty (PI. ii, 4). 



* See illustration of such a corm on Plate 50 of " The Flora of South 

 Africa, (4.) 



f See illustration in " Flora of South Africa," (4, 132.) 



