232 Wilson . — The Mucilage - and other 
secretory organs, and such were at once seen when prepara- 
tions of the petiole were made, a series of fine mucilage-glands 
being found at the base of it. Professor Bayley Balfour, to 
whom I submitted the preparations, was of opinion that the 
existence of these glands had not previously been mentioned, 
and recommended me to prosecute the study of them. Close 
scrutiny of works likely to contain reference to them has not 
brought to hand any information on the subject. The matter 
is of such importance that it is hardly possible they could 
have been studied, and the records of the observations have 
failed to find their way into standard botanical literature. 
Under certain conditions the secretion is so liquid as to be 
mistaken for water. It is singular enough, however, that the 
feature should not have been emphasised, seeing that some 
species in herbaria are found adhering by the secretion, and 
the operation of drying the specimens might have revealed the 
condition under remark. Boissier 1 , in his monograph of the 
Plumbagineae, does not touch the question of the glands, 
although he notices the glutinous condition, e. g. in Statice 
lychnidifolia. Bentham and Hooker 2 are also silent. In only 
one case have I noticed more direct reference to the secretion 
(not the glands), viz., by Griffith 3 , who describes Aegialitis 
rotundifolia as having a viscous or watery fluid filling the axils. 
In two cases the specific name indicates the presence of 
mucilaginous secretion, viz. Acantholimon viscidulum and 
Statice gummifera. The former, which I have not seen, is 
described by Bunge 4 as having leaves, bracts and rachis 
viscid. 
However remarkable it is that systematists should not have 
been the means of directing attention to the mucilage-glands, 
it is much more remarkable that observers who have made the 
1 Boissier, De Candolle’s Prodromus, Part 12, 1848. 
2 Genera Plantarum, vol. ii, Part 2, 1876. 
3 Notulae ad Plantas Asiaticas (Posthumous Papers of the late William 
Griffith, F.L.S.). Calcutta, 1854. 
4 Bunge, Die Gattung Acantholimon , Memoires de l’Acad. de St. Petersbourg, 
ser. 7, tome xviii, 1872. 
