REJUVENESCENCE IN NATURE. 55 



terminal bud. The flowers arise laterally from the axils 

 of the cataphyllary leaves. The Adoxa, on the contrary, 

 creeps along under ground with a slender stem, rising 

 above the surface every spring to bring forth, after an 

 indefinite number of small, tooth-like, cataphyllary leaves, 

 one to three (mostly two) long-stalked euphyllary leaves, 

 from the axils of which arise the flowering stems, with 

 two smaller, sessile, euphyllary leaves, and the head of 

 flowers. Between the two long-stalked euphyllary leaves 

 the stem recommences its growth as a descending runner, 

 repeating the same process in the following spring, and 

 so on, ad infinitum. Helleborus niger, Anemone nemorosa, 

 Epimedium, Actaa, and Pyrola, may be mentioned as 

 examples of another kind of growth. I will describe the first 

 two somewhat minutely, for comparison wiihlfepatica and 

 Adoxa; the short ground-stem or root-stock of the black 

 hellebore annually produces one single euphyllary leaf, 

 which is succeeded by a terminal bud of two to four cata- 

 phyllary leaves. After alternating in this way for four 

 or five years, the euphyllary formation is skipped over,* 

 or only imperfectly indicated, and the plant attains the 

 hypsophyllary and floral formations, and then rises up 

 above the alternating euphyllary and cataphyllary leaf 

 regions through the elongation of the flowering stem. 

 In like manner, Anemone nemorosa prolongs its creeping, 

 subterraneous growth, with alternations of euphyllary and 

 cataphyllary formations, for several years before it arrives 

 at flower terminating the shoot. The number of annual 

 cataphyllary leaves on the horizontal rhizome increases 

 from year to year, rising gradually to eight, and each of 

 these preparatory sections terminates with a single long- 

 stalked euphyllary leaf, till, finally, the last section, after 

 producing its proper number of cataphyllary leaves, rises 

 into an upright shaft, producing the three-leaved whorl 

 of euphyllary leaves and the nodding flower. Among 



* As in Rhododendron (see above) aud Pyrola. 



