,",( I Newcombe, Sensitive Life of Asparagus ptumosus. 



90°, radius about 5 cm. It had not twined. On 7th day, tip in 

 arc of about 67°, but no twining. Observations were continued 

 on this preparation for a total of 21 days, during wbich the shoot 

 made a growth of 108.5 cm, reaching a total hight thcrefore of 

 143.5 cm. Observations were made from once to 15 times a day, 

 There was no twining. The most of the time, the tip mitated 

 between the vertical and 90° below the vertical, often holding a 

 declination ot45° below the vertical for a day. For the most of the 

 time. however, the tip was in motion in both vertical and horizontal 

 planes. These movements were followed by observations at in- 

 tervals of 15 minutes for several hours on each of 3 days, and 

 for shorter times on other days, in order to determine the character 

 of the movements. The movements constituted irregulär nutation, 

 not circumnutation. Of course, if they had been circumnutation, 

 the shoot would have twined, provided the tip was kept close 

 enough to the stake, and the diameter of the circuit was great 

 enough to carry the tip about the stake. Both of the last-named 

 conditions were fulfilled: Tho the tendency of the tip was to grow 

 off at an angle with the vertical — an angle of 15° to 45° — 

 and the tip sometimes was found 6 cm in horizontal distance from 

 the stake, the tip was frequently brot back to the vicinity of the 

 stake by loosely looping a cord around stake and shoot 5 to 10 cm 

 back from the tip of the shoot. Several times when the inclined 

 tip was seen to be moving horizontally, the flank, a centimeter or 

 two back of the apex, was brot against the stake so that a con- 

 tinuation of the movement would carry the tip around the stake; 

 but the tip never continued long enough in the same direction to 

 make a complete circuit. Several times the tip had risen to the 

 vertical direction and remained for hours in the orthotropic position. 

 AVhen the cylind^r was removed from the plant at the end of the 

 experiment, the shoot showed a fairly straight stein with no coils, 

 and no appendages except the nodal scales. 



3) A shoot, 2 meters long and without any branches, that 

 had wandcred over the ground and among other plants in the same 

 bed without Unding any support to twine about was buried in earth 

 40 cm from its apex, and the distal portion brot upright and tied 

 to a thin bamboo stake. After 24 hours, the shoot had made one 

 and four-fifths turns about the stake. It was now covered with 

 an opaque cylinder, and observed from day to day for 8 days. For 

 3 days the shoot continued to twine, making in all four and three- 

 fourths turns about the stake. During these 3 days, the tip of 

 the shoot approached nearer and nearer the vertical, straightening 

 its arch, and thus narrowing the path of circumnutation and making 

 a steeper coil than at the beginning of the period. For the last 

 5 days there was no inore twining. The tip rose parallel with the 

 stake, adding 9 cm to its length in these last 5 days. No branches 

 were developed up to the conclusion of the observations. 



4) A shoot that had already twined about a vertical cord, 

 making a spiral 47.8 cm long, was covered by an opaque cylinder. 

 This shoot was beginning to unfold lateral branches 30 cm below 



