328 Arber . — The Leaf Str lecture of the Iridaceae , 
here the resemblance is not close. Syringodea seems rather to belong to 
the type of the bifacial species of Galaxia and Moraea . 
Of the genus Galaxia , which is also confined to the Cape, I have 
examined two species. One of these, G. graminea , Thunb. (Figs. 65 A-E), 
shows that lack of symmetry which we have noticed as not unusual among 
the Iridaceae. It has a sheath (Fig. 65 a) passing into a solid limb 
(Fig. 65 c), which I interpret as a petiolar phyllode. The anatomy supports 
this view ; the structure, especially in the region near the apex (Figs. 
65 D and E), recalls that of the type of ensiform leaf in which the bundles 
alternate. In another species, Galaxia ovata , Thunb. (Fig. 66), the only 
leaf which I have been able to examine was entirely dorsiventral, but 
it was probably an early leaf which had not achieved the mature form, 
since, according to Ross’s 1 description, the leaves of this species normally 
terminate in a short monofacial apex. It is evidently a species in which 
a typical petiolar phyllode, such as that found in Galaxia graminea, has 
been reduced until it consists chiefly of the leaf-base. The median bundle 
is unimportant as compared with the main laterals, and the general structure 
resembles that of various Moraeas. It may be recalled that the union of 
the stamens of Galaxia into a tube is also a character in which it approaches 
Moraea and differs from the other Crocoideae. It is quite possible that 
the genus ought to be removed into the Iridoideae, as has been suggested 
by Chodat and Balicka-Iwanowska. 2 
8. Asymmetry in certain Irid Leaves. 
A tendency to the reduction or loss of the median bundle, sometimes 
associated with a general lack of foliar symmetry about the adaxial-abaxial 
plane, is exhibited in many genera of Iridoideae and Crocoideae, though not, 
so far as I am aware, in the Ixioideae. In the Xiphium Section of the genus 
Iris , the midrib is, as a rule, insignificant in comparison with the laterals 
(e. g. Iris xiphioides, Figs. 31 C and D, p. 313). In the genus Moraea the 
midrib region is often thinner than the rest of the leaf, and traversed by 
several small bundles, of which sometimes no individual can be reckoned 
as actually median. This peculiarity is not confined to the leaf-sheath 
leaves (Figs. 36-8, p. 315), for there may be a complete absence of a median 
bundle in the dorsal region of an ensiform petiolar phyllode belonging to 
the genus (Figs. 12 A and B, p. 304). According to Ross’s 3 figures, 
there is also no median bundle in Bobartia and Terraria . In the 
Crocoideae, Romidea (Figs. 61—4, p. 324), Crocus (Figs. 56 and 57), and 
Syringodea (Fig. 60) are characterized by median bundles which are smaller 
than the main laterals, while in Galaxia (Figs. 65 and 66, p. 324) and Syrin- 
godea (Fig. 60) this reduction of the median bundle is associated with a lack 
1 Ross, H. (1892-3). 2 Chodat, R., and Balicka-Iwanowska, G. (1832-3). 
3 Ross, H. (1892-3). 
