:<(iii -mini : APl'LICATION OF THE THEORY <>K 



The growth of the fruit in the case of cauliflorous trees there- 

 fore may be justifiably included among those cases which are 

 covered by our general theory. 



V.— APPLICATION OF THEORY TO CASES OF 

 GROWTH WITHOUT RESERVE STORES. 



[t is now necessary to turn to the question how far the theory 

 can account for growth in cases where large quantities of 

 reserve food are not stored by the plant. There are undoubted - 

 l\ .1 large number of cases, both in the Tropics and in Tem- 

 perate Regions, of plants which live from hand to mouth as 

 it were, or in other words the food assimilated during the day 

 by the leaves is almost immediately conducted to the growing 

 organs and is there elaborated into new tissue. The growth 

 of a large number of herbaceous plants and of many shrubby 

 plants is of this kind. 



Now it will be seen in dealing with these cases how much 

 more complicated the application of our theory becomes. To 

 the factors which may become limiting in cases of growth 

 from reserve, several new ones are added. The growth from 

 reserve was presumably never limited by lack of the organic 

 food-materials themselves, nor, sine the reserve food material 

 contains the mineral elements necessary for growth, dors it 

 slacken for lack of mineral food. Now it is conceivable that 

 in cases of growth in which there is no food-store, both these 

 oausee may at any time check the growth. It may be that 

 Organic food material is lacking <>n account of conditions 

 unfavourable to assimilation, or it may be that with sufficient 

 mic food, the mineral food is not in good supply 

 either from the small amount of transpiration, or from 



absence <>f suffioienl quantities of mineral solutions in 



the soil 



In fact for tins kind ot growth to he rapid a larger number 



>>f external conditions must he jointly favourable than in the 



