234 



The more important hemieryptophytic summer-plants are 

 some halophytes which will he dealt with below. 



Anabasis eriopoda (C. A. M.). 



This species is common in very dry clay- and stone- 

 deserts. It has a very characteristic appearance as will be 

 seen from iigures 58 and 59. The year-shoots measure 30 

 cm. long or even more, and arise from a white woolly 

 cushion which lies in the uppermost crust of soil. The leaves 

 are reduced to small opposite scales, which on older branches 

 terminate in rather long slender spines; in their axils many 

 white woolly hairs occur. 



The lower leaf-axils of the year-shoots are branchless, 

 but the upper ones all bear branches. The more vigorous 

 branches give rise to new ones so that a tangle of branches 

 results towards the top (fig. 58). All the 

 aerial shoots are annual. 



The two lowermost leaves of each shoot 

 are embedded in the cushion whence all the 

 shoots issue, they are very short, but have 

 long apical spines (fig. 59), and their leaf- 

 axils are very woolly. The woolly cushion 

 must be formed by the hairs in the lower 

 leaf-axils of successive shoots, and my obser- 

 vations indicate that the shoots arise in these 

 very leaf-axils, though not conclusive enough 

 to prove this positively. 



The small inconspicuous flowers open in 

 July, and the fruits which are fleshy and not 

 covered by the perianth ripen during Sep- 

 tember or October. 



The anatomy of the shoots is shown 

 in fig. 60. The epidermis is very thick con- 

 sisting of three layers; inside it is a thin-walled "crystal 

 layer" which is, however, interrupted in many places. The 

 ordinary layers of palisades are present, likewise a starch- 

 sheath and an aqueous tissue. 



Fig. 59. Anabasis 

 eriopoda. Part of 

 a cushion with 

 two shoots. Au- 

 gust. Natural size. 



