THE GENUS NOTOTRICHE: 203 
extremities of the root would have been found to extend to a depth of nearly a metre 
below the surface of the soil. 
The leaf-rosette in this species, on the other hand, only protrudes from 1-2 cm. above 
the surface of the ground, so that the contrast between the underground and the aerial 
portions of the plant is very marked. A similar state of affairs is seen in all the other 
species of this genus and is of course characteristic of nearly all the high Andean 
plants. It is, however, unfortunate that, except in the case of N. turritella, there is 
scarcely a perfect specimen of Nototriche to be found in our herbaria *. 
Each leaf-rosette in N. turritella is like a little cylinder of some 2-25 cm. in diameter 
and from 3-12 cm. in length, but owing to the pronounced root-shortening and stem- 
contraction, the stem apex never rises more than a centimetre or two above the surface 
of the soil. This continual burying of the stem is no doubt assisted by the loose 
volcanic ash in which these plants grow, and which accumulates in and about the cushions. 
The upper parts of the underground stem or its branches are thus clothed with leaves or 
leaf-bases for some distance below the surface of the soil, and there can be no doubt that 
the petioles with their adnate stipules—the vaginze—afford a very efficient protective 
covering, especially as they are so often covered by a dense felt of stellate hairs. 
In N. aretioides the petiole-bases are further provided with sharp spines on their 
dorsal surfaces (Pl. 29. fig. 16), and in many cases—especially in the forms with bipinnatifid 
leaves (e. g. N. anthemidifolia, &c.)—the vaginz are clothed on their inner surface with 
a felt of long soft hairs. 
The Stipules.—The fusion of the stipules to the petiole to form a kind of vagina is one 
of the chief characteristics of the genus, and this fusion, which is usually continued as 
far as the middle of the petiole, may extend in some cases almost to the lamina. The 
free portions of the stipules may be long and filiform (cf. Pl. 29. figs. 1, 2, 6, &e.) or 
short and broad (cf. Pl. 28. figs. 9-12, &c.); in some species they are quite similar in 
character to the leaflets, whilst in others they retain the more or less membranous 
appearance of the ** vagina." 
The primary and principal function of the stipules is no doubt bud-protection, but 
they continue to protect the stems long after the leaf-lamina has broken off, for the 
petioles are not easily detached and may be found covering the stem some distance 
below the surface of the soil. 
The Leaves.—lt is in the leaf-lamina, however, that some of the most interesting 
peculiarities of the genus are to be found. ‘The original type may be assumed to be a 
5-lobed, palmate lamina, and such a simple form is retained in many species. From 
this condition a complicated series of forms, characteristic for definite species, appears to 
have been develo ped by secondary and tertiary lobing or subdivision of some or all of 
the original five lobes. To such an extent has this process been carried that in some 
species (e. g. in N. sajamensis, &c.) the palmate character of the leaf is almost lost sight 
* A small species of Astragalus which I found growing with JV. turritella on the slopes of El Misti in Peru 
affords an even more striking case: an old plant which formed a small carpet on the surface of the soil about 
15 em. in diameter and not more than 4 mm. in height had an underground stem and tap-root extending 
Vertically downwards about a metre. 
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