i85 
MORPHOLOGY OF MEMBERS. 
will grow upwards, develope leaves and flowers, and then die off; Just as « + 3 sprang 
from a leaf-axil as a lateral shoot of n + 2, so did this also spring from Each 
of these shoots produced on its basal portion nine membranous colourless scale-like 
leaves ^ which are still partially retained in « + 3, while in n, n + i, and « + 2, only their 
scars are to be seen ; the numbers 1-9 indicate these in each year's growth. The new 
lateral shoot arises each year in the axil of the ninth and last scale-leaf, and the suc- 
ceeding leaves are foliage-leaves on slender elongated internodes, while the internodes 
of the basal portion between the membranous scale-leaves are thick and short. The 
leaves are in two rows on the basal parts, alternately right and left, as may be seen by 
their scars ; if the position of the ninth leaf of the segment n is called left, then that 
of the segment « + i is right, that of the segment « + 2 left ; the shoots which continue 
the sympodium are thus again alternately right and left ; and hence the sympodium is in 
this case a scorpioid cyme. 
It is evident that the processes of growth would remain precisely the same, if, at the 
close of each period 
^ of growth, after the 
would be a helicoid cyme. The processes in Colchicum are similar, but somewhat more 
complicated. 
The explanation of processes of growth of this nature requires much space, as is 
shown by the above example ; I must refer therefore to the labours of Irmisch men- 
tioned below ^. Where the leaves are clearly developed in Monocotyledons and Dicoty- 
ledons — and it is only in a few forms of inflorescence that this is not the case — it is 
almost always easy to understand the true nature of a branch-system, even without 
microscopic examination ; because, with but few exceptions, the branching is axillary ; 
the positign of the leaves then makes it sufficiently clear which is mother-shoot and 
^ [Niederblätter or ' Cataphyllary leaves ' of Henfrey ; Braun's Rejuvenescence in Nature ; in 
Ray Soc, Botanical and Physiological Memoirs, 1853, P- 4-] 
2 Irmisch, Knollen und Zwiebelgewächse. Berlin 1850. — Ditto, Biologie und Morphologie 
der Orchideen. Leipzig 1853. — Ditto, Beiträge zur Morphologie der Pflanzen, flalle 1854, 1856. — 
See also his papers in the Botanische Zeitung and the Regensburg ' Flora.' [Henfrey, Bot. Gaz. 
bud for the next 
year had attained 
sufficient vigour, the 
whole shoot, includ- 
ing its basal portion, 
had died off" and 
decayed ; then, of 
course, no sympo- 
dium would be 
formed, but the 
development of the 
underground buds 
would nevertheless 
be sympodial. This 
occurs, for instance, 
in our native tu- 
berous species of 
Opbrys, but M'ith 
the diff"erence that 
if a sympodium were 
actually formed, it 
Fig. 143. — Polygonatitnt 7tmItißo7'um ; the anterior piece of a much long'er rhizome, consist- 
ing of four annual growths. seen in profile, B from above ; all the adventitious roots have been 
cut off, their position being indicated by the roundish scars. The numbers 1864, 1865, 1866 
denote the years in which the respective pieces of the sympodium have been produced. 
i«5o, 1851.] 
