17(1 10UHXAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY S0CIET1 I v/.Y 



tli.it very often at night or in the early morning the green parts of 

 tbe plant are covered with dew, whilst all the other plants in the 

 neighbourhood are quite dry. The white crust that is seen ai 

 day-time on the green branches and leaver consists chiefly of 

 chloride of sodium and calcium carbonate with some other saline 

 substances. 



fiergia odorala shows the fendciic) to crowd the leave.-* into 

 fascicles. His evident thai by this means the leaves cover iiid 



- ; ejii li other and are, thus, less exposed to the heating influence 

 of the sun. Shla spinom and rhomb/folia, car. telwa, look quit 

 from very small stellate, hairs. Still better protected is Abut Hon 

 tjravKolens which, besides having long spreading hairs, i- covered 

 with a sticky coaf of short hairs. Of Grewia tutlosa, which is u.stiallv 

 found in the dry pan- of the Presidency, the branches an jri 

 pubernlons, the tipper surface of the leaves rough with stellate hairs, 

 the lower velvety, the petioles villous and the stipules hairy, the 

 flower-buds, sepals, and ovary covered with pilose hairs. 



Tribnlus terreslris and T. alulux belong both to the deserl 

 Besides being protected by silk) villous hairs the\ perform -una 

 special movements by which the plant-surface exposed to insolation 

 il\ reduced. The leaves arc nbrupth pinnate. Now, when 

 the heat is rising at noon or in the afternoon, the leaflets begin to 

 turn round their own axis and, at the same time, upwards round the 

 common rhachis, till they are lying in one vertical | Iain with their 

 upper sides touching each oilier. 

 Zitjophtjllum simplex and /.. coeehieiuri differ from the ibovi 



"ne I plants by tbe distincl succulence of their leaves. In both 

 species they are cylindric, in Z. simplex- sessile and in Z. cwvineum 

 bifoliate on a stonl fleshy [letiole. In the centre there is a thin-walled 

 water-tissue occupy'Ug about | of the whole diameter in the former, 

 and about I in the hitter. At the same time, the stomata are de- 

 pressed. The young branches in Z. coceineum are, besides, covered 

 with a white powdery (omentum. The leaves of Fayoai.a r-retieu ire 

 thick, approaching the type of succulent plant-. The miter walls 

 of the polygonal cells i>f the epidermis arc verj much thickened. 

 Lotv.i aarcini is a small tmdershruh thai grows in sandy soil. Its 



hes are covered with grej silky hair- ; the leaflets are extremel) 

 small and fleshy, both sides arc clothed with grey hairs, Main 



