257 



ON THE CAULOTAXIS OF BEITISH FUMARIACEM. 

 By Thomas Hick, B.A., B.Sc. 



The term "caulotaxis" is here used in the sense defined in a 

 previous communication to this Journal,* viz. , as a designation for the 

 arrangement and relation of the central and lateral axes of a plant. 



Every practical botanist is aware that plants exhibit some 

 variety in their modes of branching, and that the relative positions 

 of the main axis and the branches are often much modified as 

 these parts pass from the rudimentary to the mature condition. 

 Of the latter fact examples are by no means difficult to meet with 

 among British plants, though these are seldom or never referred to, 

 even in our native text-books on Botanical Science. Hence an 

 account of the caulotaxis of British FianaiiacecE may not be without 

 some interest, and may possibly afford a clue to the explanation of 

 other and more complicated cases. 



^r 







Fig. 1. Empirical diagrammatic view of Corydalis clavicnhita. 2. Rational do. 

 3. Seedling of do. 4. Young i^lant bearing its first inflorescence. 



A convenient starting-point will be afforded by the following 

 description of the axis of Corydalis claviculata, drawn up some time 

 ago The specimen consisted of six internodes, which formed the 

 terminal portion of one of the long slender shoots characteristic of 

 this species. As the specimen lay before me, the following points 

 were noted : — At the Jirst node, i.e., the lowest on the specimen, 

 there was a leaf on the le/t,\ and a peduncle bearing flowers 



* 'Journal of Botany,' Oct., 1882. 



t It need hardly be said that the terms left and right, as used in this 

 description i'or the successive leaves, are not to be taken strictly as indicating a 

 distichous pliyllotaxis. 



Journal, of Botany. — Vol. 23. [Sept., 1885.] s 



