THEORY OF THE GBOWTH OF CUTTINGS. 413 



Observations on Cuttings and Mutilated Branches of the 

 Bramble. 

 The secondary branches which develop when the end of the 

 primary branch is injured are of two types, which, however, 

 graduate into one another. The first kind is the ordinary leaf- 

 bearing branch, which does not differ from the primary or parent 

 branch. The second type may be called a root-bearing branch*. 

 I found two examples of this kind springing from the apical buds 

 of a branch which hung down into a mass of thick vegetation. 

 The end of the primary branch had become etiolated and thickened, 

 but had been in some way injured before it could produce its 

 roots. The result was that the two most apical buds had grown 

 into semi-etiolated, root-producing branches. These are distin- 

 guished by being short (12 and 7 millims.), thick (3 or 4 mm.), and 

 club-shaped, i. e. thicker at the apex than the base, by having scale- 

 like leaves, and by producing a crown of rudimentary roots at their 

 club-like ends. In fact they differ from an ordinary side-branch 

 exactly as the root-bearing extremity of the primary branch differs 

 from a common leaf-bearing branch. This type of root-bearing 

 branches I have frequently produced artificially ; but the above 

 is the only instance occurring in a state of nature which I have 

 met with. 



Figs. 1 & 2 (p. 414) will give an idea of the general appearance 

 of these curious objects. Fig. 2 is drawn from the above-men- 

 tioned branch tied vertically up in damp moss, and which produced 

 a few side-shoots. 



In the other cases which I have observed of primary branches 

 injured in a state of nature, the root-bearing secondary branches 

 were not of the pure root-bearing type, but rather leaf-bearing 

 branches, which ultimately became root-bearers. Thus I found a 

 primary branch which seemed to have been injured by being trodden 

 on, and the most apical bud bad grown into a thin cylindrical 

 branch 9 centims. long, which had then developed roots. Another 

 injured Bramble had produced, from near its apex, a side-shoot 

 17| centims. in length, which in like manner bore roots at its 

 extremity. 



* It is probably to this type that Bell Salter refers (ibid.) when he sayB : — 

 " The part nearest the end bears no buds, as a general rule, capable of pro- 

 ducing shoots, hut only of rooting ; for I know, from very recent observation, 

 that not only the extreme point, but also the bude near it, are capable of rooting, 

 and occasionally do so." 



