356 BALFOUR AND SMITH—MOULTONIA. 
We do not overlook other explanations that might be given 
of the construction in Moultonia. Thus, in absence of all 
evidence of the seedling condition it might be held that in both 
Moultonia and Monophyliaea the folium unicum is really an 
epicotylar leaf with which the inflorescence is more or less 
“congenitally concrescent.”” In such a view, the unilateral 
disposition of the flowers on the scapes in Monophyliaea might 
be regarded as a stage towards the complete fusion of scape 
with leaf in Moultonia. To us such concrescences do not 
appeal 
A more illuminative comparison may be made with what is 
seen in Chirita hamosa, R. Br., of which, however, we have not 
yet the clear explanation. In Plate CXLVII. is a figure of this 
plant when in flower. The opposite leaves are petiolate, and the 
flowers arise in a line upon the upper surface of each petiole. 
They are epipetiolar. The buds on the petiole are not, however, 
all flower-buds ; some are foliage. The sequence is irregular. 
The position of the inflorescence recalls partially that of Moul- 
tonia. There is no concrescence here; simply foliar evolution 
of flower and buds. The seedling of Chirita hamosa has cotyle- 
dons differing in size and separated by a hypocotylar elongation. 
The upper is the larger, becomes stalked, and has quite the form 
of the adult leaf, but it never bears flowers or buds. Possibly 
then what we have been describing in Moultonia as a protocorm 
outgrowth may be after all an epicotylar leaf with epiphyllous 
inflorescences more extended than in Chirita hamosa. 
The flower-structure of Moultonia is not without special 
interest. The gynaeceum is closed at the top by a solid cone 
like a style supported upon a stylopod, and this seems to separate 
as an operculum from the lower portion of the capsule which 
remains enclosed in the calyx. For a clear understanding of the 
mechanism of dehiscence better material than that at our dis- 
posal is necessary. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATES CXLVI-CXLVII. 
Illustrating Professor Bayley Balfour and Mr. W. W. Smith’s paper on Moultonia. 
(The plates are taken from photographs by Mr. Robert M. Adam.) 
PiaTE CXLVI. Moultonia singularis, Balf. fil. et W. W. Sm 
CXLVII. Chirita hamosa, R. Br. Plant in flower in n the Royal Botanic 
Garden, Edin. 
