47 



Further Observations on the Propagation 

 OF Cymodogea Antargtiga. 



By J. Gr. O. Tepper, F.L.S., Loudon ; Memb. Bot. Verein^ 

 Brandenburg ; Corr. Memb. 



[Read August 2, 1881.] 

 Plate V. 



Tn a former paper read before the Society in November, 

 1880 (^L'ide p. 1), I bad the honour to describe the matiu-e 

 state of the above plant when commencing independent 

 existence ; also how and where the roots are formed. I also 

 stated my conjectures regarding previous processes, not 

 observed then, in so far that no real free seed was formed, but 

 the seed as soon as formed germinated and grew into a plant 

 attached to the two unsymmetrical pairs of basket-like spines, 

 acting as a grappling apparatus to anchor the infant plant 

 firmly till its roots ap^^eared. 



These conjectures, I am happy to say, appear by my recent 

 observations to be verified. 



In the early part of June, after a storm, detached young; 

 plants Avere for the first time in the season discovered among; 

 the weeds thrown up on the beach, and, after careful search, 

 some few adhering to branchlets. At the end of the month 

 hundreds of specimens had been found, and one specimen 

 among them bearing two branchlets with what I presumed to 

 be the sperm-tubes, or male organs. 



The female buds develop before June at the apex of a branch- 

 let concealed by its apical leaves, which at a later stage fall off. 

 All parts of the flower seem to be persistent, and form the fruit 

 unaltered. It comprises a peduncular joint of the average length 

 of those forming the branch, but a little compressed in the 

 same direction as the leaves. Where joined to the likewise com- 

 pressed calyx, a double pair of bracts with cut margins is 

 attached, which become dark-brown towards ripeness. The 

 long diameter of the calyx is about one-eighth to three- 

 sixteenths of an inch, while transversely it is only about 

 half that, the former parallel to the width of the leaves. 

 The very short free bracts adhere closely to the stiff green 

 sepals, for as such I interpret the double pair of unsymmetrical 

 thick leaves containing the previously described basket-like 



