528 Transactions.— Botany. 
The procedure in propagating Marattia by scales is very similar to that of 
the common Potato. When the plant is grown from a detached scale, the 
buds may sprout from any part of its surface, differing in this respect from 
the potato in having neither points or eyes, and when a frond springs from 
the crown of the rhizome, or from a scale above the surface of the ground, 
it derives its nourishment through the parent scales. 
The bud swells to a considerable size before the crozier bursts through 
the cuticular bark. During this process the latter is split and the edges 
carried upwards, forming the so-called adnate stipules of authors, and 
remain as a sharp ridge round the scar where the stipe articulated. The 
new stipe begins to swell at its base at a very early period, spreading over 
the adjacent surface, and forming a new scale. 
The growth of the Marattia rhizome is remarkably slow, being under 
favorable circumstances only one inch diameter in one year, and as the 
height is less than the diameter it may be safely calculated that a Maori 
will consume in one day the growth of five years, which fact may account 
for this fern disappearing in New Zealand wherever the Maoris are 
numerous. The rhizome, by a process of renewal and movement, lives for 
an indefinite time, shifting its position in the ground by its growth out- 
wards from a centre, the exhausted scales accumulating in a hard mass on 
the original site. In this way, like certain fungi, rings or detached clumps 
may be formed at equal distances from the centre, if no obstructiou exists. 
Before the exhaustion of the rhizome mass, adventitious frond-buds sprout 
from various parts of its surface above or beneath the soil. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XVII. 
Fig. 1.—Front view of a scale half the natural size. It is composed of 
cellular tissue filled with starch grains, fibro-vascular bundles, and covered 
by an adhering bark. The cut section shows numerous small orange- 
coloured spots, which exude on the surface, when newly cut, a viscid gum- 
resinous matter. 
Fig. 2.—A scale after three months in the ground, showing the method 
of bud growth with roots proceeding from the bottom of the bud. Half 
the natural size. 
Figs. 3 and 4 are two illustrations of the frond growth above ground, 
showing the croziers in two stages of development, and the formation of the 
adnate stipules. Half the natural size. 
Fig. 5.—Root process, showing rootlets proceeding chiefly from the 
lower side of root ; the whole very flexible. Half the natural size. 
Figs. 6 and 64.—Seetions of root enlarged. The chief component mass 
is cellular tissue and starch grains, with lacune. There is also a star- 
