NOTES. 
PHENOMENON ANALOGOUS TO LEAP-PALL.- In the 
text-books of plant-anatomy it will be found mentioned 1 that in some 
species of Rubus — as also in Ribes, Lomcera, etc. — the cork-forming 
meristem or phellogen arises in the inmost layer of the primary cortex, 
or at the external limit of the bast-fibres ( stereom ). In this note I wish 
to call attention to the case of Rubus australis. This species is rendered 
interesting from its peculiar habit, and from the rudimentary condition 
of its leaves : these latter are characterised by possessing no lamina — 
they consist simply of the midribs of the single unpaired and of the 
paired leaflets of the compound leaves commonly found in members 
of the genus. These midribs are thickly beset with prickles, with 
points directed downwards. Such a disposition of the prickles is also 
characteristically found in other Rubi ; but here their development is 
much more strongly pronounced, so that they constitute a most formid- 
able climbing apparatus, which has very obviously been derived from 
the commonly occurring Rubus- type. The younger shoots are of a 
deep green colour, and their importance in the total assimilative 
activity of the plant is a considerable one, the leaves being in so 
reduced a condition. A tranverse section of a young first-year s shoot 
shows the ordinary ring of primary vascular bundles, with more or 
less secondary xylem and phloem according to its age. Immediately 
outside the ring of bundles is a broken ring of bast-fibres (stereom), 
each fascicle of such fibres being immediately outside a primary 
phloem. The gaps in this stereom correspond to the points wdiere 
the primary medullary rays run into the cortex. The cortex consists 
of some ten to a dozen layers of parenchymatous cells, all of which 
are assimilative, bounded externally by the epidermis. The two or 
three outermost layers are not quite so richly assimilative as the more 
deeply lying ones, as estimated by the number of corpuscles in each 
cell. Towards the end of the summer a phellogen is developed. 
This is formed from the inmost of the assimilating cortical layers — 
Cf. De Bary, Comp. Anat, Eng. edit. p. 552. 
