260 Gwynne- Vaughan. — On the Anatomy of 
in his paper on the anatomy of Danaea . The addition of a new genus 
to an order so limited in the number of its genera as the Marattiaceae 
is of sufficient interest to warrant the following supplementary observations 
upon this the only example of the genus hitherto discovered. 
The material at my disposal proved upon examination to consist 
almost entirely of three large leaf-bases inserted so closely together as 
to appear to arise one upon the other, as shown by Figs, i and 2, PL X. 
Further investigation disclosed a fourth young leaf and a small portion 
of the apical region of the stem lying between the larger leaf-bases. 
Unfortunately the specimen had not been cut off from the rest of the stock 
upon which it grew, but torn away, and in consequence the lower end 
of the stem was in a very lacerated and fragmentary condition. The 
tissues, however, were in a fairly satisfactory state of preservation. The 
portion of stock examined does not appear to have been subterranean, 
but it was impossible to decide whether it grew erect or not. There was, 
however, no suggestion of dorsiventrality ; on the other hand, the arrange- 
ment of the leaves and the structure of the vascular system indicated 
a radial symmetry. 
The two leaves belonging to the petioles, the cut ends of which are 
shown in the figures, also accompanied the specimen. They were about 
28 inches in length, including the terminal pinna. Two pairs of shortly 
stalked, nearly opposite lateral pinnae are inserted upon the upper third 
of the rachis in each leaf. The basal region of the petiole is enlarged into 
a conspicuous pulvinus (Figs. 1 and 2), another occurs about halfway 
up the free petiole, and the bases of the stalks of the pinnae also show 
a pulvinar structure. The surface of the basal pulvinus is rough, corrugated, 
and dark brown in colour. This region is thereby sharply marked off from 
the rest of the petiole, which is yellowish white in colour and, although 
bearing a few paleae, is smooth and shining. As stated by Christ and 
Giesenhagen, the upper part of the petiole shows no articulation with 
the basal pulvinus. The bend seen in the drawings just above the enlarged 
bases of the petioles has probably been produced in the collecting. 
The characteristic stipular appendages of the order are present at 
the bases of the leaves, and are produced by the prolongation of the 
margins of the enlarged leaf-base into two broad wings thinning down 
towards their edges until they become quite membranous (Figs. 3 and 4). 
Just above the middle of the basal pulvinus the two lateral wings are 
united across the adaxial surface of their leaf by a plate of tissue forming 
a transverse intra-axillary commissure, as described by Sachs in Angiopteris , 
Marattia and Danaea 1 . This cross-piece is abaxially concave, and in the 
bud it curves over and protects its own leaf, which is circinately coiled 
up behind it (Fig. 3). The top of the young leaf is covered over by the 
1 Text-book of Botany (English edition), p. 417, 1882. 
