82 



Several seedlings were collected in the stage figured in Fig. 

 To8, which shows the base of the young plant, and we see 

 that the fruit with the apex of the cotyledon has dropped, 



4 



while a swelling has taken place at the base of the stem and 

 inside the persisting sheath of the cotyledon. This is due to 

 the presence of a conical bud, which has been formed in an 

 earlier state (Fig. 107), but has now grown farther out, having 

 attained quite a considerable size in the stage of growth fig- 

 ured in Fig. 109. The place of this bud is in the axil of the 

 cotyledon, just at the back side of the main axis, as is shown A 



in Fig. 107. This bud seems most frequently to develop into 

 a tuber (Fig. 1 1 1), and it is to be pointed out that the apex of 

 the bud will gradually bend downwards so that the axis of 

 the tuber describes a horizontal direction. The first leaf upon 

 this tuber turns its back towards the main axis, as does the 

 first leaf upon each secondary branch in most monocotyledon- 

 ous plants. This fact is especially to be seen in Fig. i lO, 

 where the bud has not formed a tuber, but has developed im- ^ 



mediately an ascending branch, at the base of which we see ''^ 



the adorsed scale-like leaf, the ''prophyllum," while the 

 remaining sheath of the cotyledon is to be observed at Sh, 

 and the main axis at A. In regard to the root-system, the 

 secondary roots are growing out already in the first year 

 (Figs. 108, no, III); they are thicker than the primary root, 

 whitish and merely sparingly branched. They have been 

 developed from the upper part of the hypocotyl, the first one 

 regularly on the anterior face of the germinating plantlet, just 

 below the slit of the cotyledonary sheath. In Fig. 1 1 1 we see 

 the beginning of the formation of the rhizome and the slight 



difference due to the relative size between the young rhizome 

 and that of an older plant, shown in Fig. 112. We see in 

 this last figure the full-grow^n rhizome, which is relatively 

 short, horizontal, tuberous and provided with several strong 

 roots. The base of the ascending stems is more or less 

 tuberous, covered with scale-like leaves and very often root- 

 ing at the nodes. The youngest part of this rhizome shows 

 a comparatively large tuber with an ascending stem (i), 

 which will eventually produce leaves and probably also 



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