XIII] OF THE ANTLERS OF DEER 893 



form of a simple branching structure. The main point is that the 

 "horn" is essentially an axial rod^ while the "antler" is essentially 

 an outspread sicrface*. In other words, the whole configuration 

 of an antler is more easily understood by conceiving it as a plate 

 or a surface, more and more notched and scolloped till but a slender 

 skeleton remains, than to look upon it the other way, namely as an 

 axial stem (or beam) giving off branches (or tines), the interspaces 

 between which latter may sometimes fill up to form a continuous 

 surface. 



Fig. 438. Antlers of Swedish elk.. After Lonnberg, from P.Z.S. 



In a sense it matters very little whether we regard the broad 

 plate-like antlers of the elk or the slender branching antlers of the 

 stag as the more primitive type;, for we are not concerned here 

 with questions of hypothetical phylogeny, and even from the 

 mathematical point of view it makes little or no difference whether 

 we describe the plate as constituted by the interconnection of 

 branches, or the branches as derived by the notching or incision 



* The fact that in one very small deer, the little South American Coassus, the 

 antler is reduced to a simple short spike, does not preclude the general distinction 

 which I have drawn. In Coassus we have the beginnings of an antler, which has 

 not yet manifested its tendency to expand; and in the many allied species of the 

 American genus Cariacus, we find the expansion manifested in various sim,ple 

 modes of ramification or bifurcation. 



