‘ : ba 
1910] : BRIEFER ARTICLES 307 
litris and Libocedrus, and effectually disprove HEER’s contention that 
this curious genus is a member of the Gnetales allied to Ephedra. 
In F. ramosissima we find a very similar arrangement to that described 
in the two species just mentioned. The epidermal cells are very small, 
the largest not exceeding 0.025 mm. in diameter, and the average being 
about half this size. They are roughly rectangular in shape and have 
very thick walls. Their most curious feature, one not observed in any 
other species of this genus, is the presence of minute, usually curved, 
Spinelike outgrowths of large numbers of the epidermal cells. These 
protuberances vary in prominence from blunt papillae of various heights 
to pointed spines o.o25 mm. in length, These are not present ida all 
of the epidermal cells, and some preparations of the epidermis are _ 
apparently entirely smooth. Fig. 1 shows a characteristic bit of the 
epidermis dotted with these spines. For the camera lucida drawings 
from which this figure was made I am indebted to Dr. FREDERICK H. 
BLopcert, a former student of the Johns Hopkins University. Some 
of the spines, probably all of them, have a central cavity opening into 
the interior of the epidermal cell, which they surmount, as is shown in 
