840 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



form of dew, though it may not lead to any great storage of it in 

 the stem. At any rate, these scales must be denoting a special 

 mechanism for providing some water to the plant, which means 

 a prevention of the loss of initial water. 



In conclusion, it may be said that all the structural peculiarities 

 of the plant point towards the storage of large quantities of water 

 in the stem* 



In connection with the dripping of water from the cut portion 

 of the stem, the chief agency concerned in this phenomenon is the 

 presence of those numerous conduits of inter-xylem phloem. The 

 turgid parenchymatous cells and the tubes cut through must shrink 

 and bleed, and in doing so must be drawing upon the water locked 

 up in similar cells above and in the surrounding woody tissue, so 

 that a sort of current of water must be set up towards these drip- 

 ping points from every direction as lignified woody tissue parts 

 with its water readily and at the same time affords the easiest 

 passage for the transit of water through it. 



