Miscellaneous. 213 



an elevatiou of 50 feet. This species is almost identical with Gam- 

 vianis viarinus, from which it diifers only in a clothing of hairs like 

 that of other lacustrine species. 



The second species belongs to the genus Orchesiia (0. cavhnatui). 

 It was found in great abundance by M. Kotschy in Cyprus, upon 

 Mount Olympus, at an altitude of 4000 feet. It lives in moist 

 places, in the vicinity of a spring. This species appears to diifer 

 from 0. Montagui only by insignilicant characters, such as a some- 

 what smaller size and a darker colour. — Siebold 6f KoUil-er's Zeit- 

 scJirift, xix. p. 156 ; Bibl. Univ. xxxv. June 15, 1869, BuJL Sci. 

 pp. 158-160. 



On the Leaves of Coniferce. 

 By Thomas Meehan, of Germantown, Pennsylvania. 



Botanists can scarcely have overlooked the fact that the true 

 leaves of Pinus consist of bud-scales, and that what are known as 

 leaves, and what Dr. Engelmann (Gray's Manual, 5th edition, p. 469) 

 calls " secondary leaves " are but phylloid shoots ; but I have failed 

 to find any specific reference to the fact in botanical works. Dr. 

 Dickson, however, in a paper " On the Phylloid Shoots of Sciado- 

 pitys verticillata" (Proceedings of Botanical Congress, 1866, p. 124), 

 remarks, " In Sciadopitys I have to call attention to the fact that 

 the leaves of the growing shoots consist, as in Pinus, entirely of bud- 

 scales." One would suppose, from this incidental reference to Pinus, 

 that he was acquainted with the fact that the so-called leaves of 

 Pinits were phylloid shoots ; but as the object of the paper is to show 

 that the so-called leaves of Sciadopitys are not true leaves, and as 

 any one must know that they are not if already cognizant of the 

 fact in Pinus, we may take it for granted that at any rate, if not 

 entirely overlooked, little thought has been given it. I believe I 

 am occupying an entirely original field in pointing out the true 

 nature of leaves in Coniferce, and that the increased knowledge will 

 have an important bearing on many obscure points in their study. 



Dr. Dickson uses but the language of general botany when he de- 

 scribes the true leaves of Pinus as " bud-scales," meaning thereby the 

 scaly free portion just under the "secondary leaves" of Engelmann, 

 and sometimes forming sheaths around them. But these free scales are 

 scarcely leaves. The chief portion of the true leaves in most plants 

 of the order are adnate with the stem ; sometimes they have the 

 power to develope into scaly points, at others into foliaceous tips, 

 and at other times are without any power but to preserve their true 

 leaf-like character. Larix afibrds the best illustration. The true 

 leaves are linear-spathulate, entirely adnate to the stem. There are 

 two kinds of stem-growth in Larix : in the one case the axis elon- 

 gates and forms shoots ; in the other, axial development is arrested 

 and spurs are formed. On the elongated shoots the leaves are scat- 

 tered ; on the spurs they are arranged in whorls. The power of 

 elongation possessed by the shoot is imparted to the leaves which 

 are adherent to it, and they produce green foliaceous awl-like tips ; 

 the power of elongation which the spurs have lost is also measurably 



