72 



plant *' acaulesceut," as do for instance A. Gray,* and Ben- 



tham and Hooker. t 



While Fig. 6;^ shows the plant at a very early stage, with 

 a small rosette of green leaves and the beginning of a creep- 

 ing rhizome, indicated by the position of some of the leaves 

 outside the cotyledons, together with the development of a 

 secondary root at some distance from these, Fig. 64 illus- 

 trates in the older specimen the true rhizome, creeping with 

 rather thick, short and still unbranched roots, with the base 

 of the leaves of the previous year still persisting. The inter- ^ 

 nodes of the rhizome are, when young, exceedingly short, and 

 it looks therefore as if the leaves formed a true rosette — that 

 is, as if they were arranged alternately upon a short, erect 

 axis with the blades spread out horizontally as, for instance, 

 in ^roscra rotundifolia, instead of upon a decumbent, creep- 

 ing stem. 



The bases of the leaves are, as mentioned above, persistent 

 for a long time, whereas the faded blades disappear very soon, 

 and it has been observed that a large quantity of starch is ^' 

 deposited here. The leaves of Dionaea have then a double 

 function in being organized for the purpose of capturing and 

 devouring insects, after which they serve as reservoirs, which 

 contain quite considerable deposits of starch, as do the fleshy 

 bulb-scales of many monocotyledonous plants. 



UMBELLIFER^E. 



Thasphim barbinode. 



The cotyledons are like those in most Umbcllifer^, that -j 

 is, above ground, and long-petioled with a lanceolate blade. 

 The hypocotyl is here either very short or, what seems to be 

 the most common case, entirely wanting. The primary root 

 is, on the contrary, strongly developed, thick and only spar- 

 ingly branched. No secondary roots are developed during 

 the first year and probably not in the second. Fig. ^^ 

 (Plate XI) shows a germinating plantlet, the plumule of which 



* A. Gray: Gen. HI, vol, I, p. 196. 

 t Bentham and Hooker : Genera plant. 



