ACnOBOLBUS. Ill 



occasional tooth, insertion oblique, contracted at the base, nearly 

 plane and horizontal at the inCerior portion of tlie stems, but 

 more concave, ascending and connivent near tlie apex ; texture 

 fragile, somewhat thin, but flesh}^ cells medium to rather large 

 in size, roundish-hexagonal or roundish-quadrate, walls thick, 

 angles thickened, trigones hardly perceptable, lumen filled with 

 chlorophyllose granules. Stipules wanting or rarely present as 

 minute scales at the apex of innovations. Fructification terminal, 

 but from the growth of innovations sometimes appearing lateral. 

 Bracts 2, larger than the leaves, broadly ovate or cordate, 2 to 

 3-lobed, the lobes repand-dentate, so as to have a crisped appear- 

 ance, convolute-concave, base saccate-amplexicaul. Bracteole 

 semi- ovate, acuminate, margin irregularly dentate, connate with 

 one of the bracts, sub-bracts rather smaller, similar in size, but 

 only bilobed, and with margins more or less entire. The bracts 

 are originally free, surrounding the convex apex of the stem, on 

 which 15-20 pistillidia are crowded. But after impregnation 

 the rapid cell-growth of the young germ extends to the ' torus 

 pistillorum,' and the bases of the adjacent leaves, so that the whole 

 are blended together to form an involucre, the lower half of which 

 is ob-conic and entire, projecting below the level of the stem, and 

 forming a kind of bulb, from which numerous rootlets proceed. 

 The mouth of the involucre is surmounted by two connivent 

 bracts and bracteole, which retain their old form. 



On longitudinal section the structure will be better under- 

 stood, the sub-bracts (which approach the terminal ones in size) 

 obscuring it. The capsule is found occupying a cavit}^ composed 

 in part of the metamorpliosed apex of the stem and bases of the 

 bracts, and in part of the calyptra, which, with the exception of 

 the dome-like apex, is concrete with the outer walls, bearing 

 around it the remains of the abortive pistillidia, which surround 

 the mouth of the involucre like a frimj^e. Perianth wantino;. 

 Calyptra campanulate, of thin hyaline texture, adnate except at 

 the apex with the fleshy involucre. Capsule oval, dark brown, 

 divided into four valves. Pedicel stout, fleshy, white, bulbous 

 at the base, and inserted into the thickened gibbous portion of 



