— 228 - 



month of July they all become bent vertically downwards 

 and curl up into something like a spout, (fig. 54). 



The plant flowers in May, the corolla being comparatively 

 large, pink and coated with woolly hairs. 



The young branches and also the leaves are white with 

 a coating of bifurcate convolvulaceous hairs, the arms of 

 which are very unequal in length (fig. 53, D). The longer 

 arm is directed towards the apex of the organ. 



The leaf is isolateral in structure. The outer wall of 

 the epidermis is very thick, as thick as the cell cavity which 

 contains tannic acid. The stomata are sunk. There are two 

 or three layers of palisade cells above and below; strong 

 bundles of bast surround the veins. 



The outer cortex of the young branches has the same 

 structure as half a leaf. 



Acanthophyllum elatius Bge. 



A plant of stony and clay soils. The woody base gives 

 rise to numerous straight unbranched twigs about half a 

 metre long, with w^hite bark and bearing opposite stiff 

 prickly leaves. Before the next vegetative period the branches 

 have died off almost down to the ground. They bear small 

 axillary leaf-rosettes, and the apex carries a cymose inflor- 

 escence. 



In the middle of the leaf is found a thick band of 

 sclerenchyma, many times thicker than the midvein which 

 extends along its upper side. Laterally there are a couple 

 of smaller veins partly accompanied bj' narrow bands of 

 sclerenchyma on the leptome side. From the median strand 

 palisade cells radiate in all directions. The epidermis has 

 very thick outer walls. The stomata are not sunk. The 

 intercellular spaces in the interior of the leaf are of consider- 

 able size (fig. 55, B). 



Acanthophyllum pungens closely resembles the above 

 species. As for the other species recorded, I have not 

 examined them. 



