200 



In the différent whorls the insertions of the flowerstalks are not 

 at the same level • in f ig. 3 a représentation is given of the position 

 of the flowers in the first inflorescence from the above table^. 



In every whorl of the living object five left-hand parastichies 

 and eight or three right-hand ones were very conspicuous; in the 

 drawing they are also to be seen. Every whorl could therefore be 

 numbered quite independently; in the figure the lowest and the 

 highest numbers are indicated. In ail the whorls the lowest number 

 was just placed at a normal divergence from the highest member 

 of the foregoing whorl. It is therefore clear, that the bracts sub- 

 tending the flowers hâve been formed in a normal phyllotaxis, and 

 that the appearence of superposed umbels has arisen from the some 

 partial elongation of the mam axis which was the cause of the 

 growth whorls described above. 



Other /'.-species show similar conditions, such as P.imperialis Jungh., P. Kewetu 

 sis and P. ohconica. In P. sineiisis two inflorescences with 4 and 5 growth whorls 

 showed the following numbers of flowers in the whorls: 5, 6, 7 and 4 in the one and 

 3,6,6,4 and 6 in the other spécimen. The parastichies of the insertions of the flower- 

 stalks were not clear, owing to the small number of stalks in a single whorl; the 

 character of growth whorls was however quite évident from the variability of the 

 number of flowers in the whorls. 



5. Polygonatum verticillatnm. Aug. 1921 I coUected on 

 Mount Pilatus in Switzerland a number of shoots of Polygonatuni 

 verticillatum. In ev^ery shoot a scar of a stem-clasping bract was to 

 be seen at the base; higher up there were from one to seven whorls 

 of ordinary leaves. None of the shoots was flowering. The whorls 

 themselves presented in some respects a close analogy to those 

 of the three cases mentioned above; in other respects, however, 

 there were différences. 



The table below gives the number of leaves in the successive 

 whorls of the collected shoots. In some of the spécimens the suc- 

 cessive whorls are quite unlike in number of leaves, e. g. number 1 7, 



^ In each whorl the différences in height of the insertion are exaggerated; and 

 since no attention has been paid to the diminishmg diameter of the tapering main 

 axis, the latéral distance of the members of the higher whorls is drawn too large. 



