COOK—HABITS OF CACAO AND PATASHTE, 617 
secondary branches, or on internodes at intermediate points between 
the insertions of the leaves, and this on shoots that appear to have 
made regular growth. The question is complicated by the fact 
that the leaves are often suppressed on some of the internodes, 
especially toward the ends of the upright shoots, and on the bases of 
the lateral branches, as shown in plate 45. Yet the suppression of 
the leaves can not be taken as proof that inflorescences would not be 
borne afterward in the axillary position, instead of being altogether 
adventitious. All that can be said with certainty is that the inflo- 
rescences often appear in places where no leaves have developed. 
In patashte it can be seen that the inflorescences do not come 
from a strictly axillary position, but appear at one side of a dormant 
axillary bud, the side that is above the bud when the lateral branch 
is in its normal horizontal position. But in order to bring all of the 
inflorescence buds above the axillary buds they have to be placed on 
different sides of the axillary buds from the standpoint of phyllotaxy, 
and this must be reckoned as another very specialized feature of the 
lateral branches. | 
PERIODS OF FLOWERING. 
In patashte only one inflorescence comes from a bud and only one 
crop of flowers is produced by each inflorescence. In cacao the 
floral buds are adventitious, with no apparent relation to the posi- 
tions of the leaves, and an indefinite succession of new buds is pro- 
duced from the same inflorescence. In Guatemala patashte seems 
to flower only during the dry season, consisting of the spring months, 
ending in May, but cacao produces a constant succession of flowers, 
though the crop is set rather irregularly, most of it late in the season 
in eastern Guatemala, after the period of heavy and frequent sum- 
mer rains. In other districts the planters often speak of two or 
three crops at definite periods, but these may be determined more by 
favorable conditions for setting or developing the fruits than by 
interruptions of flowering. 
STRUCTURE OF INFLORESCENCES. 
As might be expected from their different positions and periods of 
production of flowers the inflorescences are not of the same form. 
Those of patashte may be described as many-branched, pseudodi- 
chotomous panicles or dichasia, solitary in the axils of new leaves, 
near the ends of lateral branches. The pseudodichotomy consists 
in the fact that the branch is equal to the main stalk at each 
subdivision, and the branch and the stalk stand at the same angle to 
the internode below. The inflorescence as a whole is subtended by a 
rather large sheathing bract. The basal joints are rather short, and 
the terminal joints, to which the flowers are attached, are still shorter, 
