NOTE. 
NOTE ON THE FOLIAR ORGANS OF MONOPHYLLAEA.— The small 
genus of Cyrtandraceae, Monophyllaea, comprises seven species of soft succulent 
herbs growing on limestone rocks from Southern Siam southwards to the Malay 
Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. The species are all very similar in appearance 
and habit. 
Monophyllaea Horsfieldi Br. A native of the Malay Peninsula; has been in 
cultivation in the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. It is a monocarpic plant, with a 
cylindric succulent stem, slightly dilated at the base, where it emits numerous rootlets. 
In a large plant the stem is about 6 inches tall, and half an inch through ; on the top 
are borne two foliar organs, of which one is very much the larger, attaining a length 
of 12 inches and a width of 18 inches. The leaf is ovate-cordate and sessile, with 
nerves radiating from the base. It is thinly fleshy, and more or less sprinkled with 
hairs. The opposite leaf is very small. From the axils of these leaves rise four or 
five slender peduncled scorpioid cymes of small white flowers. 
The seeds are borne in a small capsule, and are minute, elliptic, with a reticu- 
lated testa. 
On germination two small, equal, semicircular, rounded cotyledons appear, rather 
broader than long. Very soon, however, as the young plant grows, one becomes more 
oblong, and longer than broad. It is now larger altogether than the other. After a 
week or two the larger one, increasing in size more rapidly than the other, becomes 
ovate-cordate with a blunt tip, and the midrib and lowest pair of nerves are faintly 
visible. The other leaf, though it increases in size, retains its original form, but is 
now not a quarter of the size of the big leaf. When the latter is half an inch long, it 
shows its complete nervation, and becomes slightly hairy along the lower edge. The 
smaller leaf is now concealed under the lobes of the cordate bigger leaf. As the 
plant grows, no buds appear on the stem below the leaves, and there are no leaf-buds 
in the axils of the two leaves. 
Thus, in Monophyllaea , there is no stem except the original hypocotyl, and no 
leaves other than the two original cotyledonary leaves, of which one practically 
becomes abortive. 
In 1 86 1 Mr. Crocker ( Journal Linn. Soc ., vol. II, p. 65) showed that the two 
very unequal leaves of Strepiocarpus polyanthus were the permanent cotyledons, and 
that the plant was leafless except for one or two upper leaves, unless the bracts of the 
inflorescence were considered as such. 
Mr. Clarke ( Monogr . Cyrtandr ., p. 1 2) suggests that in other one-leaved species 
of Cyrtandreae of various genera the one large leaf may also be the cotyledon. 
He instances Didymocarpus pygmaea , Tr achy stigma Mannii , Acanthonema strigosum , 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XX. No. LXXVIII. April 1906.] 
