i86 



MORPHOLOGV OF MEMBERS. 



will grow upwards, develope leaves and flowers, and then die off. Just as « + 3 sprang 

 from a leaf-axil as a lateral shoot of n + 2, so did this also spring from « + i. Each 

 of these shoots produced on its basal portion nine membranous colourless scale-like 

 leaves^ which are still partially retained in « + 3, while in n, n + i, and n + 2, only their 

 scars are to be seen; the numbers 1-9 indicate these in each year's growth. The new 

 lateral shoot arises each year in the axil of the ninth and last scale-leaf, and the suc- 

 ceeding leaves are foliage-leaves on slender elongated internodes, while the internodes 

 of the basal portion between the membranous scale-leaves are thick and short. The 

 leaves are in two rows on the basal parts, alternately right and left, as may be seen by 

 their scars ; if the position of the ninth leaf of the segment « is called left, then that 

 of the segment « + i is right, that of the segment n + 2 left ; the shoots which continue 

 the sympodium are thus again alternately right and left ; and hence the sympodium is in 

 this case a scorpioid cyme. 



It is evident that the processes of growth would remain precisely the same, if, at the 



close of each period 

 of growth, after the 

 bud for the next 

 year had attained 

 sufficient vigour, the 

 whole shoot, includ- 

 ing its basal portion, 

 had died off and 

 decayed ; then, of 

 course, no sympo- 

 dium would be 

 formed, but the 

 development of the 

 underground buds 

 would nevertheless 

 be sympodial. This 

 occurs, for instance, 

 in our native tu- 

 berous species of 

 Ophrys, but with 

 the difference that 

 if a sympodium were 

 actually formed, it 

 would be a helicoid cyme. The processes in Colchkum are similar, but somewhat more 

 complicated. 



The explanation of processes of growth of this nature requires much space, as is 

 shown by the above example ; I must refer therefore to the labours of Irmisch men- 

 tioned below ^. Where the leaves are clearly developed in Monocotyledons and Dicoty- 

 ledons—and it is only in a few forms of inflorescence that this is not the case — it is 

 almost always easy lo understand the true nature of a branch-system, even without 

 microscopic examination ; because, with but few exceptions, the branching is axillary ; 

 the position of the leaves then makes it sufficiently clear which is mother-shoot and 



Fig. n^.—Polygonatum multijlorum ; the anterior piece of a much longer rhizome, consist- 

 ing of four annual growths. ^ seen in profile, B from above ; all the adventitious roots have been 

 cut off, their position being indicated by the roundish scars. The numbers 1864, 1865, 1866 

 denote the years in which the respective pieces of the sympodium have been produced. 



^ [Niederblatter or ' Cataphyllary leaves ' of Henfrey ; Braun's Rejuvenescence in Nature ; in 

 Ray Soc, Botanical and Physiological Memoirs, 1853, p, 4.] 



2 Irmisch, Knollen und Zwiebelgewachse. Berlin 1850.— Ditto, Biologic und Morphologie 

 der Orchideen. Leipzig 1853. — Ditto, Beitrage zur Morphologie der Pflanzen. Halle 1854, 1856. — 

 See also his papers in the Bot^nische Zeitung and the Regensburg ' Flora.' [Henfrey, Bot. Gaz. 

 r85o, 1851.] 



