250 
Boodle and W or s dell. — On the 
place, next to the protoxylem, was a vessel with a single, 
long, narrow perforation, while one or two elements farther 
out was one with several perforations. The structure of the 
node in every point resembles that of Ephedra to a degree 
which is very striking to one accustomed only to the ordinary 
structure of the internode. There are tracheides with two 
conspicuous rows of bordered pits on their terminal walls, 
these pits having precisely the appearance of those which are 
characteristic of Ephedra . Among these occur vessels whose 
lateral walls are covered with the large round bordered pits, 
while their terminal walls are precisely analogous to Ephedra 
in every respect, having, like that plant, two distinct rows of 
small , roitnd perforations , each one the size of the bordered 
pit from which it is derived. These vessels are also narrower 
than those in the internode. As seen in the stem of Ephedra , 
transitions also occurred here between tracheides and vessels, 
some of the perforations having more or less of a border 
round them, others having no border remaining (Fig. 37) 
(cf. Fig. 41). On some terminal walls there were perforations 
in the centre and bordered pits at each end. As you get 
lower down towards the internode the structure gradually 
passes over into that typical for Gnetum\ the opposite, ad- 
jacent perforations on the terminal walls of the vessels are 
seen to fuse two and two to form a single perforation, this 
resulting in a single row of somewhat oval perforations con- 
siderably larger than the original ones of the node ; this stage 
was observed here and there, as represented by Fig. 38, which 
is, however, taken from the stem of G. Gnemon , L. ; farther 
down still the perforations thus formed fuse with those above 
and below to form the single, narrow, long perforation when 
the fusion is complete ; all transitions between it and the 
first stage occur where the fusion is irregular ; as in some 
instances the bordered pits are often placed very irregularly 
on a rather broad terminal wall, the result of fusion is a rather 
complex arrangement of perforations. Usually the perfora- 
tion is not so complete, but that a distinct border is still left 
round it (Figs. 39, 40). The same kind of fusion is seen in 
