410 ME. F. DAKWm OK THE 



its way into the soil, where it puts out numerous strong roots, 

 which fix it firmly in its place. The roots may arise within a few 

 millimetres from the apex, and extend for some two or three centi- 

 metres. If a well-rooted bramble-shoot be pulled up, the growing 

 end of the shoot may be seen surrounded by a nest of radiating 

 roots ; this growing end rests during the winter months, and shoots 

 up into a new branch in the spring (Yaucher and Germain de St. 

 Pierre). The end of the shoot is much thickened, and is covered 

 with scale-like rudimentary leaves, and with small prickles densely 

 crowded together ; it forms, as Germain de St. Pierre calls it, a 

 " tubercle lulbifornie" supplying a store of nutriment for the new 

 growth in the following spring. Branches which have not yet pro- 

 duced roots, but which have grown in shady places, such as 

 among tufts of coarse grass, present a peculiar appearance, which 

 precedes the production of roots : the shoot does not taper, but is 

 cylindrical, or even thicker at the apex than further back ; it is 

 generally pale in colour from being semietiolated, and its leaves 

 are dwarfed or scale-like. Germain de St. Pierre notices this fact. 



The natural growth of roots in the Bramble differs strikingly 

 from their growth in an ordinary life-unit or cutting ; for in all 

 ordinary cases the roots grow at the basal end, whereas in the 

 Bramble they are developed at the apex of the branch. It may 

 be objected that since the growing end of the Bramble develops 

 into a new growth in the spring, the autumnal roots are potentially 

 at the base of a future branch, and not at the apex of the present 

 one. If we look at the facts by the light of Sachs's theory, that the 

 materials for the formation of roots and branches are endowed 

 with specific powers of flowing in different directions, we shall be 

 obliged to consider the growth at the apex of the bramble-branch 

 as true apical growth ; since the flow of formative material can 

 have nothing to do with the future continuation of the branch, 

 but must have taken place in the existing part of the branch, and 

 therefore towards the existing apex. It is sufficient for my pur- 

 pose to be able to say that the roots appear at what is, for the 

 time being, the apex of the shoot. 



It is the long trailing branches of the Bramble which usually 

 reach the soil and take root ; and since these branches must neces- 

 sarily have been directed downwards during the latter part of their 

 period of growth, it naturally occurs to one as probable that the 

 roots may be developed at the apex of the branch in obedience to 

 gravitation. For if gravitation and its after-effect determine 



