THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 91 



botany is beyond the comprehension of common mortals. What 

 this country needs is more real botanists as teachers, easier ac- 

 cess to nature, more encouragement of individual effort and 

 less discipline for disciplines sake in the laboratory. When 

 these ends are attained we shall hear fewer complaints that the 

 public is not interested in the study of nature. 



Dimorphic Branches. — The United States Bureau of 

 Plant Industry recently issued a bulletin on "Dimorphic 

 Branches of Tropical Crop Plants" in which it is shown that 

 in cotton, coffee, cacao, banana and others there are two kinds 

 of branches one of which produces fruit while the other is de- 

 voted to vegetative functions. In some species the fruiting 

 branches rise from axillary buds and in others they are extra 

 axillary. The fact that many plants bear two kinds of 

 branches has long been known. In the pines there are not only 

 two kinds of branches as regards function, but they 

 differ as regards form and each bears a different kind 

 of leaf. In the ginkgo the fruits are borne on cer- 

 tain dwarf branches, and similar dwarf fruiting 

 branches may be seen in the apples, pears, plums and 

 cherries of our gardens. Here they are called "fruit spurs" 

 but they are none the less branches that are quite different in 

 form from ordinary branches. They may often be only an 

 inch long and yet a dozen years old. In the cotton plant the 

 branches that arise from the axils of the leaves have purely 

 vegetative functions while those that produce the cotton are de- 

 veloped from extra-axillary buds. For this latter style of bud 

 the author proposes the term natal bud, possibly overlooking 

 the fact that this type is well known as an accessory or super- 

 numerary bud and is so discussed in all school courses. It is 

 in no sense an adventitious bud but has a definite place at which 

 to appear. 



