THE PLANT WORLD UNDER CARE 



205 



nourish it, and was transported to Ar- 

 cadia. Here in a disused aquarium it 

 goes on living its brave, cheerful life, 

 marking the seasons with bloom and 



ing off a branch into which nearly all 

 the fibro-vascular bundles enter, thus 

 causing the branch truly to become the 

 trunk, and the original trunk to atrophy 



fruitage. 



A New Example of Sympodial Growth. 



BY EMILY PALMER CAPE, STAMFORD, CONN. 



I was once taking a walk along Sum- 

 mer Street, Stamford, Connecticut, and 

 turning the first country road to the 

 west, I found a bridge under which 

 ran a winding stream. Noticing a nar- 

 row footpath by the water's edge, I 

 wandered along to see where it might 

 lead. Walking slowly I saw manj 

 beautiful birds and wild flowers, then 

 a great bed of sumac (Rhus glabra) 

 stopped my path, it grew so thickly. 

 Studying it as I pushed my way along, 

 I suddenly stood still for I saw that 

 this sumac was sympodial. 



The depth of enthusiasm I felt in 

 my discovery will be explained, when 

 I mention that as long ago as 1907 Dr. 

 Lester F. Ward wrote to Science ask- 

 ing for the names of plants, other than 

 the vine and the linden, having the 

 sympodial mode of growth. In all these 

 years the scientific world had never 

 mentioned having found any. Thus to 

 find this new example was a real de- 

 light to me. 



A few words as to the meaning of 

 sympodial growth will be appreciated 

 by those who may not be familiar with 

 it. 



The development of life in all its 

 forms has interested thinking minds 

 for ages. Darwin's law of evolution 

 often means to the masses only the ris- 

 ing from a lower to a higher stage of 

 existence, but the how is seldom 

 thought much about. To those who 

 have the prevailing idea that evolution 

 signifies a monopodial or simply arbo- 

 rescent, development, this subject may 

 have a special interest. The science 

 of botany gives the general conception 

 of monopodial growth or that in which 

 the main trunk gives subordinate stems 

 or branches and thus diminishing in 

 size till it terminates in a slender twig. 

 This is the type that all are acquainted 

 with, and of which they think when 

 the arborescent character of organic de- 

 velopment is mentioned. Now sympo- 

 dial branching shows us the main trunk 

 rising to a certain height and then giv- 



A SPECIMEN OF SUMAC SHOWING SYMPODIAL 

 DEVELOPMENT. 



Drawing by Emily Palmer Cape. 



and disappear all but a small end. This 

 large branch at length in turn sends off 

 another branch, and the first one is 



