44 & Arber . — On the Leaf Structure of certain Liliaceae , 
Tidipa , be recognized in a vestigial condition, forming a short cylindrical 
apex, in which transverse sections reveal a ring of bundles. 
I propose here to consider the additional case of Anemarrhena , since 
this monotypic genus seems to me to afford some slight confirmatory 
evidence for the existence of leaf-base phyllodes. 
I chose the leaf of Anemarrhena asphedeloides , Bunge (Asphode- 
loideae-Anthericineae), for examination, because, in this plant, Miss Ethel 
Sargant 1 found a type of seedling structure which a comparative study of 
the Liliaceae showed to be primitive for that Family. The leaf of A. aspho- 
deloides is long, linear, and parallel-veined, ending in an attenuated point. 
It does not terminate in a relatively massive cylindrical apex with a ring of 
Figs. 1-7. (Xylem, black; phloem, white.) Figs. 1-4, Anemarrhena asphodeloides , Bunge. 
Fig. t, transverse section of limb of leaf ( X 14). Figs. 2-4, series of transverse sections through 
apical region of leaf (x 23) (these sections are from herbarium material, and the exact arrangement 
of the fused bundles in Fig. 4 could not be ascertained). Fig. 5, Foeniculum vulgare , Mill. Trans- 
verse section of leaf-sheath (x 14). Figs. 6 and 7, Ranunculus Ficaria , L. Fig. 6, transverse 
section of apex of scale leaf (x 23). Fig. 7, transverse section of a rather small petiole ( x 14). 
bundles, such as I have described for Hyacinthus , &c. But a series of 
sections through the apical region shows that, as the leaf narrows down, it 
becomes deeply grooved on the upper side (Fig. 2), and the vascular system 
is reduced to three veins, of which the two laterals come to lie almost 
horizontally. The groove gradually disappears (Fig. 3), while the bundles 
fuse into a single vascular mass (Fig. 4). The apical structure of this leaf 
seems to me to be readily interpreted on the view that the entire leaf is of 
4 leaf-base ’ nature, and that the slender apex represents the region which, 
in the ancestral leaf, formed the transition to the petiole. The relation of 
the limb to the apex closely recalls the relation of these parts in the scale- 
leaf of Ranunculus Ficaria , L. (Arber, A., 1918 , pr. in Fig. 4, p. 474), which 
is undoubtedly of leaf-base nature. Sections through the apex of this 
scale (Fig. 6) show three bundles occupying the same relative position as 
the three bundles of the Anemarrhena leaf-tip, and this structure is also 
1 Sargant, E. ( 1903 ). 
