Morphology of the Citrus. 177 



as a variety with most of its leaves without any crena- 

 tions, although the oil cells at the edges are not extinct. 

 These would appear to mark the position of the crena- 

 tion angles. A tree of the same family, the Feronia 

 elephantum (kaitha) has the oil cells sometimes only 

 at the angles of the crenations, and none visible on the 

 blade of the leaf. These crenations or serrations, 

 whatever botanists may like to call them, I take to be 

 simply abortive leaflets, and the angles between them 

 I take to mean the abortive axillce of those leaflets.* 



There is a most interesting little plant (Bryo- 

 phyllum calycinum), called by some natives ghao- 

 patta. On the edges of its leaves it has large crena- 

 tions, with what I would call secondary axillce between 

 them. In these secondary axillae are dormant buds.f 

 In old Byrophyllums these buds can often be seen 

 developing into little plants with roots and leaves, 

 while the parent leaves are still attached to the plant. 

 These leaf-bud plantlets, detached and put in the 

 ground, will grow into individuals similar to the 

 parent. They are, in fact, simply seeds without the 

 seed-j^^//^, and as they begin to germinate before they 

 are separated from the parent leaf, they have no need 

 of the stores of food called cotyledons, or of the pro- 

 tecting seed shells. In fact, the parent leaf performs 

 in this case the function of cotyledons. In other words, 

 they might be considered as rooted buds, developed 

 from the axillae of the abortive leaflets the crenations. 



Now, the simplest form of fruit is, I think, that of 

 the pea we eat. The pea-pod is a leaf folded over 

 itself, with its edges united together. From the 

 axillae of its crenations (apparent or not) the seed buds 

 are developed, each being provided with a small store 

 of food and a shell to protect the whole. In this case 



* Vide Appendix, No. 60. t Vide Appendix, No. 39 (b). 



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