spread horizontally and seldom far downwards into the 

 ground." An examination of living South Australian material 

 fully confirms this ; occasionally the upper-surface of the root 

 appears above the ground level. The roots are decidedly long 

 in relation to the size of the plant, and their appearance, 

 projecting at right angles from the stem, is very striking (text 

 fig. 1). A second feature shown by the root is the great abund- 

 ance of long root hairs. They are only with difficulty to be 

 separated from the soil particles, the rhizoids of a species of 

 Fossombron'ta and filaments of various green algae that occur 

 on or near the surface of the soil. The number of roots is 

 stated to be 1-3. Out of 184 South Australian specimens in 

 which the number was actually counted only 41 had more than 

 a single root. 



(b) It would appear that the Australian plants of 

 Phyllogloshum consistently have fewer leaves than those 

 growing in New Zealand and are less robust (12: p. 290). 

 Bertrand (2) and Bower (3: p. 665) record a maximum 

 number of eight. Eight is the greatest number of leaves found 

 on South Australian specimens ; plants with but three leaves 

 occur most plentifully, and there is a high percentage with but 

 a single leaf. (All these specimens grew from tubers of the 

 previous year, there is no question of sporlings to be con- 

 sidered.) Apparently no strict connection exists between the 

 number of leaves and roots that a plant may form. The 

 statistics for 184 sped 

 table : — 



Number of leaves 



Total number of plants 

 Number with one root 

 Number with two roots 

 Number with three roots 



Thus, while it frequently happens that a plant with a high 

 number of leaves has more than a single root, plants with 7 

 or 8 leaves may have but one root, and conversely plants with 

 2 or 3 leaves may have as many roots as leaves. No plants 

 have been found in which the number of roots was in excess 

 of the number of leaves. 



(c) The small proportion of fertile plants observed 

 among the South Australian specimens is noteworthy. Of 

 the 184 individuals enumerated above but 4 bore cones. They 

 had respectively 2, 3, 5, and 6 leaves. Thomas (12: p. 290) has 

 drawn attention to the point that there appears to be no 

 necessary connection between the number of leaves and spore 

 production. Observations in the field in South Australia 

 confirm this. 



(d) With a solitary exception all the South Australian 

 specimens of Phylloglossum had produced but a single tuber. 



ens are set 



out 



in 



the 



following 



. ... 1 2 

 . ... 39 29 

 . ... 39 25 

 . ... — 4 



3 



48 



43 



3 



2 



4 



29 



19 



9 



1 



5 



27 

 13 

 12 



2 



6 7 8 



7 14 

 2 11 

 5—1 



— — 2 



