1038 Chambers .— The Vestigial Axillary Strands of 
No cases of normal branching have been observed in T. javanicmn. Text- 
fig. 1, A, shows a curious case in which two stems, bearing about a dozen 
petioles, appear to dichotomize owing to the fact that they have grown in 
close proximity, and have become connected by the interweaving of their 
roots. 
This erect unbranched habit seemed at first to give the clue to the 
meaning of the abortive axillary 
A B 
branch. The presence of axillary 
strands is described by Boodle 1 
in T. Prieurii , which has an erect 
stem. But Gwynne-Vaughan 2 
has described the occurrence, in 
a dorsiventral rhizome of Helmin - 
thostachys zeylanica , of canals 
leading from the axil of each leaf 
to the stele of the rhizome. Here 
each is met by a conical projec¬ 
tion of parenchyma surrounded 
by endodermis. These, he sug¬ 
gests, represent vestigial axillary 
buds. Bruchmann* found similar 
bodies on young plants of Bo- 
try chium lunaria , which develop 
into lateral branches. He thus 
confirmed Gwynne - Vaughan’s 
suggestion. The phenomenon is 
not, then, confined to forms with 
erect habit. Bower 4 suggests 
that there are two ways in which 
underground-growing organisms can secure perennation ; the first is by 
repeated branching and the appearance of some of the branches above 
ground for a time; the second method is by suppression of branching in 
the stock and enlargement of the few leaves. The suppression of branch¬ 
ing in the forms under consideration is probably connected with growth 
underground, and is not correlated specially with either erect or dorsiventral 
habit. 
Text-fig. i. a. Habit of Trichomanes javanicum . 
B. Petiole, showing tongue of tissue at the base. 
Stelar Anatomy of T. javanicum. 
The stem possesses a central stele composed of a mass of xylem inter¬ 
spersed with parenchyma. The tracheides are nearly uniform in size, so 
that it is impossible to distinguish the protoxylem. The xylem is sur¬ 
rounded by a continuous ring of phloem, outside which is the pericycle and 
1 loc. cit., p. 470. 2 loc. cit. 3 loc. cit. 4 Origin of Land Flora, p. 43 t. 
