THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 83 



prevalent method of branching. In the Hght of this evidence, 

 it may well seem that the production of buds is conditioned 

 largely by some extraneous physical stimulus, perhaps such as 

 that administered in sectioning. Opposite to Blodca in the 

 following respect is the conclusion that survival is not neces- 

 sarily dependent upon a large number of segments remaining 

 in the plant, as one segment pieces appear to live indefinitely. 

 Buds from such pieces, however, do not grow as rapidly as 

 those from material containing a larger number of whorls of 

 leaves. Group II in Ceratophyllimi seemed to have been taken 

 from a dying stem, as only two of its members survived, each 

 producing a bud. Moreover, this group when considered as 

 a whole with the remaining ones seems to indicate that when 

 a greater portion of the plant than one segment is left, some- 

 thing occurs to inhibit the development of most of the latent 

 buds so that only those favored advantageously by light rela- 

 tion, protection given the rest of the plant, etc., appear to 

 vegetate. An average taken from the table seems to show 

 that pieces of 3-4 segments are also favorable for regeneration. 

 If this last statement be made to contrast with the results ob- 

 tained from the first group, it may be pointed out that since 

 the plant as ordinarily found consists of many segments and 

 branches, metabolism is probably sufficiently great in such a 

 case to permit the full development of buds in every segment, 

 thus accounting for the frequency of branches as stated. 

 While buds may be formed negatively in relation to the light, 

 in time they become positively heliotropic. 



Both Blodea and Ceratophylluni have the fundamentally 

 similar structural plan of a number of metamerically repeated 

 parts, but we have the outstanding point that while the latter 

 has retained the primitive power as found in manv of the 

 higher plants to produce buds at each segment, Blodea, a 

 simpler Angiosperm has apparently lost such. Ceratophylluni 



