/^Oisonian Instit 
f jUN 17 1916 
Some Points in the Morphology of the Stipules in the 
Stellatae, with special reference to Galium. 
BY 
H. TAICEDA, D.I.C. 
With twenty-seven Figures in the Text. 
I T is hardly necessary to recapitulate here the results of the previous 
investigators on the nature of the leaf-like organs or c leaves 5 in the 
apparent whorls of Galium , and of many other members of the Stellatae 
(or Galieae, a tribe of the Rubiaceae). There is little doubt that in any 
whorl the two opposite ‘leaves’, one at any rate of which subtends an 
axillary shoot, are the true leaves, while the other members at the same 
node are stipules. Thus, in the case of a six-membered whorl there are 
two leaves, each of which is provided with two stipules. Where only five 
or four ‘ leaves ’ occur in a whorl, it is usually understood that in the first 
case one, and in the second case both, pairs of stipules have undergone 
a concrescence. If, however, more than six ‘ leaves ’ are present in a whorl, 
it is explained that one or more of the original four stipules have undergone 
chorisis, resulting in the production of supernumerary members . 1 
Eichler found in Galium Mollugo and also Rubia tinctorum , that there 
are often two primordia which fuse, giving rise to a single interfoliar 
stipule on either side of the stem . 2 Goebel , 3 on the other hand, found in 
1 Cf. de Candolle, Vegetable Organography (Engl, ed.), vol. i (1841), p. 286; Le Maout et 
Decaisne, Traite general de Botanique, p. 15 (1868); Leunis, Synopsis der Pflanzenkunde, ed. 3, 
i, p. 193 (1883); Pax, Allgemeine Morpbologie der Pflanzen, p. 102 (1890); Velenovsky, 
Vergleichende Morphologie der Pflanzen, pt. 2, p. 433 et seq. (1907) ; Worsdel, Principles of 
Plant-Teratology, vol. i (1915), p. 172. It may be of some interest to mention that Wydler, who 
recorded the occurrence of a complete fission of a stipule into two separate organs in Galium 
Cruciata , Linn, (in Flora, vol. xlii, 1859, p. 10), suggested that each of the apparently single stipules 
in this species may be the product of a fusion of two separate organs. * If so,’ he says, ‘ the forma- 
tion of a midrib (indistinguishable from the midrib of the true leaves) on the common border of two 
fused stipules is remarkable. The midrib in the (fused) stipules would then correspond to commissural 
ribs, like those for example in a gamosepalous calyx.’ 
2 Eichler, Entwickelungsgeschichte des Blattes, &c., p. 32, Taf. i, Fig. 18 (1861). Pax 
( 1 . c.) follows this view, and gives Galium roiundifolium and G. palustre as examples. 
3 Vergleichende Entwickelungsgeschichte der Pflanzenorgane. Schenk’s Handbuch der Botanik, 
iii (1884), pt. 1, Fig. 48 b , p. 231. See also Goebel, Organography of Plants (Engl, ed.), pt. 2 
(1905), p. 369. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXX. No. CXVIII. April, 1916.] - 
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