— 228 — 
month of July they all become bent vertically downwards 
and curl up into something like a spout. (fig. 54). 
The plant flowers in May, the corolla being comparatively 
large, pink and coated with woolly hairs. 
The young branches and also the leaves are white with 
a coating of bifurcate convolvulaceous hairs, the arms of 
which are very unequal in length (fig. 53, D). The longer 
arm is directed towards the apex of the organ. 
The leaf is isolateral in structure. The outer wall of 
the epidermis is very thick, as thick as the cell cavity which 
contains tannic acid. The stomata are sunk. There are two 
or three layers of palisade cells above and below; strong 
bundles of bast surround the veins. 
The outer cortex of the young branches has the same 
structure as half a leaf. 
Acanthophyllum elatius Bge. 
A plant of stony and clay soils. The woody base gives 
rise to numerous straight unbranched twigs about half a 
metre long, with white bark and bearing opposite stiff 
prickly leaves. Before the next vegetative period the branches 
have died off almost down to the ground. They bear small 
axillary leaf-rosettes, and the apex carries a cymose inflor- 
escence. 
In the middle of the leaf is found a thick band of 
sclerenchyma, many times thicker than the midvein which 
extends along its upper side. Laterally there are a couple 
of smaller veins partly accompanied by narrow bands of 
sclerenchyma on the leptome side. From the median strand 
palisade cells radiate in all directions. The epidermis has 
very thick outer walls. The stomata are not sunk. The 
intercellular spaces in the interior of the leaf are of consider- 
able size (fig. 55, B). 
Acanthophyllum pungens closely resembles the above 
species. As for the other species recorded, I have not 
examined them. 
