LEAVES OF THE FARINOSAE* 
AGNES ARBER 
(WITH PLATES I-III) 
Introduction 
In papers published in this and other journals during the last 
few years (ARBER 1-10) I have dealt with the results of the applica- 
tion of the phyllode theory to the leaves of various groups of 
monocotyledons. The present paper discusses, from this stand- 
point, the leaf structure of the families associated by ENGLER (11) 
in the cohort Farinosae. Examination of this group is a matter 
of some difficulty to a British botanist, since the eleven families 
which it includes are represented in Europe by one species alone, 
Eriocaulon septangulare With., and even in cultivation compara- 
tively few genera belonging to these families are to be found. I 
have thus been unable to carry this study so far as I should have 
wished, because it has been necessary to rely almost entirely on 
limited quantities of herbarium material, which, in the case of 
the many fibrous-leaved members of the Farinosae, is peculiarly 
intractable to sectioning. McLran’s (14) method of preparing 
dried material has proved invaluable, however, even in the case of 
plants which have lain in herbaria for many years. The specimen 
of Cephalostemon affinis Koern., for instance, sections of which are 
represented in fig. 26 A-C, was collected by Spruce in South 
America as long ago as 1853. 
I am indebted for material to the Director of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Kew; the Keeper of the Department of Botany, British 
Museum (Natural History); Mr. L. Ropway, of Hobart, Tasmania; 
and Professor A. C. SEWARD. 
I propose in the first place, taking the families in the order in 
which they appear in ENGLER’s Pflanzenfamilien, briefly to describe 
the principal types of leaf met with in the cohort, and then to 
discuss their interpretation. 
This paper represents part of the work carried out — the tenure of a 
Geadey FJetcher-Warr Studentship of the University of London 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 74] [80 
