108 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
There is, at least, one witness in favour of the latter 
supposition, and this is afforded in the shrub Apophyllum 
anomalum. na luxuriant spring this shrub actually de- 
velops a few leaves which lie closely to the branches, and 
almost adnate; but, in a very short time, say a few 
weeks, it sheds them, even when some are only yet half 
deyeloped. Such a condition of things points to a lost 
habit. 
The Conifers may also be mentioned, though I do 
not, myself, consider the Pines to be leafless plants, they 
having, to all intents what may tbe safely regarded as 
leaves, the so-called “scale leaves,” bearing stomata (and 
therefore I am not including them in this :paper), what- 
ever they may in the future become; these show a mor- 
‘phologically degenerating tendency. ossiaea Walkert 
with its dilated leaf stems and undeveloped leatf-huds, is 
another instance of a lost foliage. 
Such cases point to the fact that these plants, in 
their efforts to survive the conditions which cost them 
their foliage, have had to adapt their branches and 
stems to foliage functions. Now this is effected by 
‘means adopted in the ordinary way by true leaves of 
other plants—i.e., by the assistance of stomata develop- 
ed upon the leaf-like epidermis of the branches where 
the chlorophyll is also secreted. 
In referring to the stomata as they occur in such 
varied numbers in different places on the same plant, 
and in such varied ‘proportions comparatively as to 
others, one gets an idea of the breathing powers of the 
various plants so circumstanced. As a rule, where the 
stomata are very minute they are more numerous, and 
vice versa; so that there is a tendency to equalise the 
average powers of transpiration in various plants. In 
the following species the number of stomata to the 
square inch, have been calculated on a basis of the aver- 
age of five reckonings in different parts of the epider- 
mis. <Apophyllum anomalum FyM “Warrior Bush.”: 
The stomata on the branches of this shrub are broad, 
oval in outline, and raised above the surface. “hey are 
-very small and very numerous, as many as 63,800 to 
the square inch. On the caducous leaves which some~ 
times appear in the spring, they are more numerous, 
