

AND ANxlTOMY OF TtiE GENUS MTSTROPETALOX. 147 



with " mystrin " parencliyma taken from the rhizome just above the point of origin of 

 the haustorium, while fig. 6 shows the short reticulate xylem elements accompanied by 

 "mystrin" cells and elongated nucleate phloem parenchyma. Accompanying these 

 elements were chains of cells with large nuclei resembling those described by Pierce in 

 Brtigmansia^ Bafflesia^ and Balanophora (Ann. Bot. vol. vii. 1893), but the mode of 

 preservation of the material did not permit of the determination of the ultimate 

 connection of the cells of the haustorium with those of the host. 



The Inflorescence. 



4 



The inflorescence is a clavate spike from 80 to 100 mm. in length by about 20 mm. In 

 diameter near its apex (PI. 15. fig. 1). The axis tapers to its point of origin from the 

 rhizome, and is covered for two-thirds of its length with closely-set linear leaves, while 

 the upper third bears female and male flowers in two distinct zones, the former 

 occupying the lower, the latter the upper portion of the floral area. 



The leaves are rather pointed in the basal region of the axis, but become more 

 truncated as the floral region is approached. They are arranged in a dense spiral and 

 are of a bright red-brown colour due to the abundant deposits of "mystrin." The leaves 

 have broad bases, are relatively thick centrally, and bordered by thin wings. Tlie 

 abaxial surfaces, as well as the margins, are densely covered with long unicellular 

 hairs, but the median region of the adaxial side is quite glabrous. There is one median 

 vascular cord consisting of a variable number of short, more or less irregular, reticulate 

 and spiral tracheids, which lie immediately below the adaxial epidermis, accompanied 

 by a very small-celled phloem. As in the case of the rhizome, " mystrin " cells are 

 interspersed among the vascular elements. The main mass of the leaf consists of 

 spherical and polygonal parenchyma with thick pitted walls and with small intercellular 

 spaces ; most of these cells contain " mystrin." The epidermis, which consists of cubical 

 or polygonal cells, is destitute of stomata (fig. 11). 



Pig. 7 (PI. 16) shows a transverse section of the axis taken at the level of the origin 

 of vegetative leaves. The superficial cells (fig. 8) are completely filled with " mystrin " 

 and are comparable in size and general appearance with those of the body of the axis as 

 a whole. Many of these fundamental cells are also more or less filled with the same 

 brown deposit. The vascular bundles are twenty to thirty in number and are distributed 

 quite irregularly through the ground-tissue. Tliescj bundles have apparently no cambium, 

 and in all cases show cells filled with "mystrin" interspersed among the vascukr tissue 

 elements proper. At fig. 9 (PI. 16) one of the smaller bundles is figured, and it will be 

 seen that it consists of a number of tracheids, some of which have spiral, others rcticuiute 

 thickenings, while the phloem consists of thin-walled, elongated, nucleated elements 

 resembling phloem parenchyma. No sieve-tubes, exhibiting definite sieve-plates, could 

 be distinguished. The larger bundles have several patches of tracheids and several 

 patches of phloem ceUs more or less separated by larger, thin-walled parenchyma 

 containing "mystrin" (fig. 10). 



