Roscndahl: svmplocarpus and lvsiciiiton. 141 



To make clear this singular behavior of Syniplocarpus, Dr. 

 Kranse has appended an imaginative original drawing showing the 

 plant in its flowerless year. 



It is hardly necessary to add that no such seasonal alternation 

 in the production and unfolding of foliage leaves and inflorescences 

 ever occurs in the life history of Symplocarpiis foetidhis. The ac- 

 companying photographs ought to dispel all such illusions even 

 among the most imaginative. 



Lysichiton camtschatcense does not agree closely (as stated 

 on page 148 I.e.) with the reputed morphology of Syniplocarpus 

 nor with the one that actually obtains. There are some differences 

 between the two which appear quite fundamental and of much 

 importance in considerations of relationship while others seem 

 to be later acquirements. 



The most obvious, although not the most signficant, of these 

 differences is the lack of any sharp differentiation between the 

 leaves of the main rhizome into cataphylls and foliage leaves as in 

 Symplocarpiis. This probably can be accounted for, at least as far 

 as the North American distribution is concerned, by climatic con- 

 ditions. The plants of Lysichiton which were studied grew on the 

 west coast of Vancouver Island and in the vicinity of Seattle,* 

 regions where the seasons are much less extreme than in Minne- 

 sota. 



The last two or three leaves produced during the late summer 

 and fall become much reduced in size, but they resemble 

 the ordinary foliage leaves in form and color and do not partake of 

 the nature of scale leaves in the same degree as those in Syniplo- 

 carpus. They never assume a brownish red color and they are 

 always differentiated into petiole and blade. Some of these re- 

 duced leaves evidently persist through the winter and when vig- 

 orous growth is resumed in early spring the inflorescences and 

 large foliage leaves follow them in regular sequence. (Text-Fig. 

 4). In this plant from three to seven renewal shoots are pro- 

 duced each year. Each renewal shoot bears two foliage leaves, 

 two narrow, colorless scale leaves that stand on either side of the 

 shoot just where it bends away or comes out from the main 

 rhizome (Text-Fig. 4). They are more or less entirely enclosed 

 by the large sheathing petioles of the foliage leaves even dur- 



* Fresh material was obtained from Seattle in 1910 and 1911 throug-h the 

 kindness of Mr. D. J. Lothrop, to whom the author is very much indebted. 



