OF CEYLON AND INDIA. 
373 
in the water. One is therefore tempted to suppose that the 
scales arise late in the season, as in Dicræa, by the enlarge- 
ment of the bases of ordinary leaves and the fall of their 
long tips, and as some shoots are usually to be found (c/. 
Beddome’s figure) with scales below and simple leaves 
above, this is not altogether improbable. The quest! on must 
be left for future settlement on the spot. 
It is, however, certain that when a young secondary shoot 
appears near the end of the season, as in PI. XXX., fig. 1, it 
has scaly leaves from the first, and usually without any 
deciduous tips. This phenomenon is not infrequent also in 
Dicræa and Hydrobryum. 
The anatomical features of the secondary axis are very 
different from those of the primary. It stands stiffly erect, 
at least in the flowering season, and this rigidity is given by 
a stout belt of lignified tissue surrounding the central strand. 
The structure of the latter, too, is quite different from that 
of the strand in the primary axis, but this point must be 
left for future description. 
The scaly leaves fit together very closely, and the exposed 
parts are hard and almost brittle v/ith silica. The long tips 
always drop off on exposure to the air. 
At the top of the secondary axis is the spathe (PI. XXX., 
fig. 3), usually of urceolate form, with two stiff teeth. It is 
half buried among the uppermost leaves, and the spathe is 
at right angles to the top pair of these. From this fact, 
together with its two teeth, one is tempted to regard it as a 
pair of leaves combined, but there is as yet no evidence of 
this being the true explanation beyond that just given. 
The exposed upper end is hard and stiff with silica, while 
the included part is very thin and delicate. In my taxo- 
nomic paper I have described the tip of the spathe as 
circumscissile, but this is hardly quite the correct expression, 
as there is no definite splitting layer of the spathe, but it 
splits round so as to separate the siliceous upper part from 
the non-siliceous lower. The upper part falls away as a cap 
and exposes the flower. 
