482 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



[1898. 



THE GROWTH OF VIBURNUM LANTANOIDES Michx. 



BY IDA A. KELLER. 



During a visit to Lake Ganoga, Sullivan County, Pa., last August, 

 I found nothing more plentiful than the hobble-bush, Viburnum Ian- 

 tanoides. The long branches of this plant with their large round- 

 ovate leaves, the brown naked winter buds, at that time already fully 

 developed, and the clusters of the then red berries were everywhere 

 conspicuous. There is something strikingly characteristic about the 

 species. It is described in Gray's Manual as a " straggling bush " 

 and in Britton & Brown's Flora as "a bush of irregular growth." 

 On collecting and comparing a sufficient number of specimens I came 

 to the conclusion that there is some peculiar tendency at the bottom 

 of this apparent irregularity and that law and order prevail in the 

 growth of this seemingly eccentric species. Although some shoots 

 differ so widely from others that they seem hardly to belong to the 

 same kind of plant it is by no means a difficult matter to find the 

 necessary connecting links. The accompanying illustrations, al- 

 though diagrammatic, are directly drawn from nature and by means 

 of these I have endeavored to show that this so called "irregular 

 growth " is chiefly due to a peculiar method of ramification on the 

 one hand, and to a tendency to the suppression of the growth of the 

 main axis on the other. 



Plate XXV, fig. 1 represents a form frequently occurring in 

 younger plants. A main axis and two lateral branches are con- 

 spicuously developed. The important point to observe is the con- 

 tinued growth of the main axis after ramification, which even sur- 

 passes that of the branches. It may be noticed incidentally at this 

 point that the axis ends with three buds, which are represented on a 

 larsrer scale in fig. 6. It must also be observed that the axes of the 

 lateral branches cease to indicate vigorous growth after again 

 branching. These axes terminate at a'. Attention must also be 

 called to the fact that on the ends of the branches marked b' there 

 appear but two instead of three buds. Fig. 7, which represents 

 these buds on a larger scale, is a repetition of fig. 6 with one of the 

 lateral buds obliterated. 1 The lateral bud in each case shows a 



1 The suppressed lateral bud occurs occasionally as a rudiment. See figs. 8 

 and 9. 



