346 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



Usually however, especially in new plants, there is a single stem from 

 which several branches arise. Young stems and branches contain 

 pith in the centre. 



BRANCHES. — Bifarious, diffuse ; striated longitudinally ; generally 

 borne on the upper part of the stem, less numerous on the lower. 

 Length of branches sometimes three to four feet at a stretch. The 

 stem when in good condition bears leaves 1\ — 1\ feet asunder. Each 

 articulation bears a solitary leaf. The procumbent branches, when 

 they reach the ground, bear fresh rootlets from the joints. 



ROOT. — Fibrous, outwardly dusky yellow, or greenish according 

 to Rumphius. On section it looks yellowish with a brown tinge 

 in the line of the axis as seen in figure 5, of Plate N, accompanying 

 this letter-press. The cross-section depicts the appearance of 

 the root in its fresh condition; on drying it shrivels up. When 

 mature it is woody and solid. Some say it has a disagreeable odour. 

 As compared with the general size of the plant, the root is thick 

 and strong ; nearer the stem it is nodose and sinuous, sending 

 down into the ground many thick fibrillse. Sometimes the root 

 is two feet long ; sometimes it sinks much deeper into the soil, so 

 much so that it is difficult to extirpate it. 



LEAVES. — Entire ; alternate ; slightly drooping ; glabrous ; un- 

 dulate or wavy ; elliptic, ovate, lanceolate, or oblong-rotund, as Rheede 

 calls them ; striated by means of prominent ribs on the ventral sur- 

 face ; midrib markedly reddish ; the principal nerves are similarly 

 reddish or even faintly so on the ventral surface in tender leaves, 

 they are greenish on the under or dorsal surface. The margin of 

 tender leaves is distinctly tinged red all round. The leaves vary in 

 colour from dark green to light green. The tender leaves are 

 generally light green ; the older dark green. Leaves growing in 

 shady places are of lighter green. 



Petioles. — Very short ; channelled ; sometimes amplexicaul, 

 sometimes absent ; margins tinged red. When the petiole is absent 

 the leaves are sometimes amplexicaul or semi-amplexicaul. 



The apex of young leaves is delicately mucronate. To see this, one 

 has to examine the leaf buds as they expand at the growing point. 

 The older leaves are obtuse at the apex. The under or dorsal surface 

 of the leaves is generally of a lighter colour than the upper or ventral. 



