201 



perhaps even nepionic, were found on herbarium specimens of 

 other species. 



With regard to seedHngs of D. rotundifolia, of which I have 

 examined many specimens, it seems to me that Nitschke's report 

 is not at all representative. His examination was evidently inci- 

 dental and the description is cursory. I have found the first 

 foliage leaf blade circular, the five marginal tentacles provided 

 with glands, the disc glands five, the whole entirely Droseraceous. 

 The earliest foliage differs from that of the adult in size, in num- 

 ber and complexity of tentacles, but in no other essential respect 

 that I can see. 



When the seed has fallen far down in the moss and the seed- 

 ling has struggled up to the light, defective leaves may be ex- 

 pected, due to poor illumination. Such were probably those 

 found by Nitschke. 



The first leaves of adventives differ, in my observation, only in 

 being more advanced as regards size of blade and number and 

 complexity of tentacles. Their more progressive condition is 

 doubtless due to better food supplies. Were one to experiment 

 with smaller and smaller leaves as sources of adventives, prob- 

 ably the tentacles could be carried back to the stage found in 

 seedlings, 



Goebel's observations on D. binata (cited p. 94) give rise to the 

 question whether the early rotund -leaves of this curious Aus- 

 tralian species — the mature leaves of which are sometimes more 

 than a foot high, a!nd as many as six-pronged — may not be near 

 the original form in the genus. I have sought to answer this 

 question from a rather careful survey of the (about) eighty-five 

 species in the genus, from the geographical distribution of the 

 various types of leaf figure, and from a study of developmental 

 stages. The whole matter is palpably speculative. By far the 

 most probable supposition is, however, that a roundish blade was 

 the original type, from which on one side came the elongated 

 forms like D. filiformis, and from which on the other came the 

 auriculate leaves of the section Ergaleium, and the " two-forked " 

 one of D. binata.'^ 



* See Reversionary Stages Experimentally Induced in Droscra interfitedia, Rho- 

 dora 5 : 265 (1903)- 



