A. H. Lees 23 



accessory growinj; points. No such clear case could be found in the 

 material coming under Case 3 and it is certainly not sufficient to account 

 for the reversion there experienced. 



Examination of the terminals however suggested a possible cause. 

 They were found in most cases to be flower buds. Thus (Table IV) out of 

 thirty-three shoots examined twenty-nine had flower bud terminals and 

 only four wood buds. In the spring these terminal flower buds would 

 open and it would not be until an accessory growing point present in the 

 bud was strengthened sufficiently that normal terminal wood growth 

 could take place. While this process was going on however there would 

 be a definite stimulus to growth on the buds situated below the terminal. 

 In a fair proportion of cases the remains of the strig from the previous 

 year's terminal flower bud (Figs. 11-13) could be seen and such an 

 arrangement might easily lead to reverted wood being formed. In order 

 to see how common this cause might be a number of shoots from different 

 sources were examined and the results tabulated and averaged in Table 

 IV, It shows that flower terminal buds are always associated with com- 

 paratively weak growth. Thus sound Seabrook's Black from Chelmsford 

 showed an average length of internode of 2-06 cm. for flower terminals 

 but 3-00 cm. for wood terminals. Long Ashton material gave corre- 

 sponding figures of 2-03 and 2-42. Reverted Seabrook's Black from 

 Chelmsford off bushes showing no big bud gave approximately equal 



