381 



tached by dying away at their base. Branching taljes place from 

 the upper leaf-axils in the rosette; the principal bud occurs 

 in the uppermost. The shoot bears first two transversely placed 

 long-stalked foliage-leaves, then similar leaves succeed in a ^/5 

 spiral. The prin- 

 cipal bud fre- 

 quently flowers 

 the same year as 

 the parent-axis, 

 and in that case 

 the bud which 

 lives through the 

 winter is seated 

 in the uppermost 

 leaf-axil at the 

 base of axis II. 

 usually there are 

 two stem-leaves, 

 ofwhich the lower 

 is short-stalked 

 and sometimes 

 subtends a floral 

 axis. Antidromy 

 is no doubt the 

 most common 

 condition. (Fig. 



28, Л). 

 I have obser- 

 ved only foliage-leaves on mature shoots ; but a section through 

 the principal bud from a specimen from Disco, gathered in 

 August, showed a leaf which no doubt was a scale-leaf (Fig. 



29, Ä), and Sylvén found scale-leaves upon his cultivated plants. 

 The large leaf-sheaths of the rosette must protect the young 

 apex of the shoot with its delicate organs during winter, 



Fig. 28, A. Ban. pygmœus. 



(Trondfjæld in Norway; 2.8.1883, about nat. size). 



B. Ran. jrygmœus var. Langeana Nath. 



(Disco: Unartok; 14. 8. 1S90; about nat. size). 



A, B, C, Old axes from 1882; a, b, c, axes that have flowered, 



1883; an, Ъч, en, their uppermost basal leaves; a, y, shoots 



in the axils of an and en- 



XXXVI. 



23 



