OF CEYLON AND INDIA. 
329 
Dry Season Appearance . — The left-hand figiirr in PI. 
XIV. shows a stone covered with this species in the condition 
in which it is found when the water has fallen away from 
it and the fruit is ripe. The rock is covered with a little 
forest of small fruit-hearing stems, 1-3 cm. high, marked 
with the scars of fallen leaves (PI. XVI., fig. 11). The fruits 
are shortly stalked, and when open have lost one valve. 
Often the thallus may still be seen as a thin thread on the 
rocks between the stems. An examination of material 
taken at this time from below the water (such as was 
studied by Prof. Warming) shows that the shoots bear long 
subulate leaves, in the lower axils of some of which the 
floral shoots arise. These leaves shrivel and drop off at 
once on exposure to the air. The structure of the shoots at 
this period has been very fully described by Warming, and 
the following account will deal mainly with the earlier 
parts of the life-history. 
Germination and Life History . — The seed is like that of 
the species already described, but has a slightly different 
embryo, the cotyledons being short and subulate, instead 
of thin and crumpled. There is a mucilaginous layer in 
the seed coat, as usual. When wetted the seed swells ; the 
hypocotyl emerges and bends downwards, and becomes at 
once attached to the substratum by rhizoids, as in Lawia ; it 
then becomes slightly tuberous, and the cotyledons expand. 
They are opposite to one another, and grow to a length of 
about 4 mm. The upper surface is slightly channelled at 
the lower part, but is not distinctly sheathing like the 
mature leaves. The cotyledons are not hairy, though the 
ordinary leaves are so. 
The primary axis develops only to a very slight degree ; 
it remains more or less erect, but the cotyledons and leaves 
usually bend over towards one side. The leaves soon 
appear (PL XVI., fig. 1), the first two being markedly 
alternate, and approximately in the same plane as the 
cotyledons. The second leaf, as seen in the figures, 
develops within the sheath of the first. About six is the 
