338 SMITH : UPPIilCATION OF THE THKiiKY OF 



cases nf shrubby plants which put out long shoots whose 

 growth is rapid and whose leaves do not function until the 

 growth of the shoot is finished or nearly so. Many of these 

 are straggling prickly plants, whose long shoots thus reach 

 to a considerable distance from the stem towards the light 

 before the leaves begin to do the work of assimilation. In 

 the growing stage the leaves on these shoots are as a rule 

 closely pressed to the stem, often covered with a mealy tomen- 

 tosity. very rarely presenting any considerable area of chloro- 

 phyllous tissue to the light. When the growth of the shoot 

 is complete, or nearly so, the leaves become spread out to the 

 light, become green by loss of their tomentosity or red colour- 

 ing, as the case may be, attain their full development in size, 

 and fully take on the function of assimilation. 



The growth of these long shoots is often very rapid, and 

 usually takes place from a copious reserve food supply in the 

 thicker stems. 



Capparis and Stiff tia. 



Two such cases woe the subject of series of measurements 

 ,t Peradeniya, namely, Capparis tloxburghii, DCand StifTtia 



chrysantba. 



One of the thicker stems of Capparis Roxburghii, which was 

 just [Milling out two of these long runner-shoots, wasexamined 

 for starch and found to be crowded with it all through the 

 tissues, so that here again we have a case of the translocation 

 ..ikI elaboration <>f supplies of food already stored. Stifftia 

 ohrysantha was not found to contain much starch under 

 aimilax conditions, but the food supply may have been in a 

 different form. 



M< thode "i Mi nstiri rru />/. 

 Here the methods veere extremely simple. A narrow mark 



w;,- mad, ..ii the growing stem well below the region of growth, 



nally by mean- of white paint . The distance from this 



B ihe lip of the ihoOi (and theM plants were chosen 



partly bi the tip is quite well-defined) was measured 



