OF CEYLON AND INDIA. 
319 
The upper side of the cupule is thicker thaiitLe lower. The 
pedicel starts from the base of the internal leafless hollow. 
There is much variation among the different forms in 
regard to the form and depth of the^cupule and the length of 
the leaves on it. PL XIII., fig. 5, shows the tj^pical cupule of 
the common Ceylon form, just before it is exposed to the air 
by the fall of the water-level. In this form, and also in the 
other Ceylon form (Parkiniana, PI. XL, fig. 9), the cupule, 
as a rule, remains closed over the tip of the flower until 
exposure to air, but the opening at the apex is not completely 
impervious. When cut in transverse section this cupule 
shows the general appearance of the diagrammatic sketch in 
PL XIII., fig 9, This shows the thick upper and thin under- 
sides, the two lateral vascular bundles, the leaves on the upper 
wall and margins, and the general orientation of the enclosed 
flower. PL XIII., fig. 8, shows the same in longitudinal 
section, and shows that the pedicel in , this form does not 
elongate till the emergence of the flower. 
Examining the forms from the Bombay districts (L. z. 
konkanica) we find the cupule in what may perhaps be re- 
garded as a more primitive condition ; it is thinner, less 
obtrusively axial in nature, and opens sooner, while the 
flowers are still submerged. Such a cupule with a nearly 
ripe fruit is shown in PL XIII., fig. I, and in section in fig. 2. 
What appears to be the case, so far as I have been able to 
observe, in these plants is this. The cupule forms simul- 
taneously with the flowei-, but not so rapidly as in the Ceylon 
forms, so that it never really shuts in the flower at the apex, 
and even after the flower has emerged to some extent the 
cupule continues to grow. Hence it comes that those who 
have examined only young buds have often supposed this 
plant to have no cupule ; in this stage the cupule is often all 
but evanescent, and sometimes the flower may ripen its fruit 
with the cupule in this condition. Other growing points on 
the same plant, again, may have very long cupules indeed. 
Non-observance of these differences (which were correctly 
