207 tion in fh.!^- country flurlng winter, lirht being less intense, the 

 lime crystals are more or less dissolved nnd the plent becomes 

 much p-reener in colour, but with the edvent of spring the crystals 

 gre drosit^^d ^ppin pnd the lipht-screen beinp- denser, the plant 

 gr'^dually resumes its vhiter appeerrnce. I have never seen any 

 species of this p-roup in flov/er; they commence to grov; in autumn 

 and I thin>- went to flower an v/inter, r.dien sunlight and heat are 

 n'ncn -"ficient. N, E. Brown 



(To be continued.) 



I'^esembryanthemum and some new p^enera se^^a rated from it, 

 Gard. Ghron. HI. 70 : 223. 1921. 

 (Continued from page 207.) 



22:? Some si-^ecies like ^■'. laridj forme, i-'-. ^olusii, i>^. simulens 



(Fig. 94) pnd r. few others, normally develop only one pair of leaves 

 annual It'', but while the new Pair is "forming the old pair remains 

 T^lumr, en(^ so tivo i^^irs are seen on the s-me grov/th at that tine, 

 the old '^■air afterwards shrivelling (during our spring) and dis- 

 a'^nearinp. When, however, more than one prir persists throughout 

 the summer, it is due to bad cultivation in the shape of overv/atering, 

 poasibly resu"i.ting in the plant not flov: ring that jeev. The flow- 

 ers O'f y. Simula ns are very handsome, two inches or more in diam- 

 eter, and usually bright^yellow in colour, but seedlings of it 

 have been raised by Dr. ^'Odier Heath that have rure v/hite flowers, 

 and another with or'^npie floi"ers, which are very charming by con- 

 trast; all varieties pre strond:/' and deliciously scented, the odour 

 be^n/? something like that of a fres'Tly-onened ^ocoanut. ^e flov.ers 

 of y. Bolusii are very similar to those of ^^. simulans, but the 

 rietal'' are fewer and not in so many series and lack the more grace- 

 ■^ul rose that the latter have. 



These srecies, however, do not sho\'j any marked peculiarity of 

 Trowth different from that o-^ other nlants, but if the mode of 

 PTowtb is erpmined o-^ the remarkable little grour to v:hich ^". 

 mitratiim, ''. ^roximum and allies belong, it wil"" be found to be 

 nuite dif""erent :f*rom that of all ordinary plants. i"'ig. 95, ^ 

 represents a prro^'-rth of ^'. rroximum in «^une , v;hen its growth seems 

 to be finished and the apparent resting period began. It remains 

 in tbis condition until late in September or beginning of October 

 or even l«ter, apparently v/ithout any other change than that the 

 ti"0 leaves at the ton of the solid-lookina- cone v/ither and shrivel 

 to very small remains. This cone consists of tv/o leaves fused into 

 o solid body for the preater nart of their length v/ith only their 

 tips free. Inside the cone at the bottom, in the centre, is a bud, 

 which, while the pl^nt annears to be at rest, develops inside the 

 cone into two leaves that are free to their base. Their develop- 

 ment is nuite undetectable and unsuspected from the outside and 

 they gro'"' at the expense of the substance of the cone, which is 

 finally completely abs-^rbed and replaced by the nev." leaves inside 

 it, so that only the skin remains to cover and conceal them, v;hich 

 changes to a greyish colour. In autumn or early winter the skin is 

 biirst and the t^"o "l^ree leaves inside it spread apart, bearing 

 frac'r.'^nts of the old skin on their backs. No other leaves are 

 pppprent rt first, but soon the second pair is seen protruding from 

 between them. Ficr. 95, B^ represents the same grov:th in January 

 of the foliov'inp' je^T , shov/ing the expanded free leaves v/ith frag- 

 ments o-f the skin of the old cone ^dherin^ to their backs, and the 

 formation of a voung cone by the second pair of leaves, raised 

 upon a ^hort interval of stem. This ^--oung cone repeats the process 



