H. WORMALD 181 



ridges generally green (but sometimes with transitions to red) and 

 this characteristic has appeared in each of the past three seasons. 

 Sometimes the darker colour of the ridges is very pronounced and 

 the bine in consequence is conspicuously striped. 



The ridges are beset with small wart-like emergences each bearing a 

 T-shaped spine at its apex, the cross-piece of the T being parallel with 

 the longitudinal axis of the stem and acutely pointed at each extremity. 

 When these "hairs" are numerous the bine is harsh to the touch, 

 when they are few in number it may feel almost smooth, but no plant 

 has been met with where they are absent altogether. Whether the 

 degrees of roughness can be accepted as characters to be used in 

 defining varieties is not yet certain, since individuals are often by no 

 means constant in this respect. Some plants, however, are appreciably 

 rougher, others smoother than the average and retain the character 

 from year to year. 



The length of the internodes is probably influenced too much by 

 the weather, method of training, general vigour and age of the plant 

 to be of any value systematically, unless indeed vigour itself is to be 

 looked upon as an inherited character^. The internodal measurements 

 were recorded by taking the minimum and maximum lengths occurring 

 in the middle third of the distance between the breast-wire and top 

 wire. The internodes may vary from 8 to 13 inches even in the same 

 mature plant; usually the variation is from 9 to 12 inches. In four 

 hills raised from cuttings obtained from Oregon in 1908 the variation 

 during 1912 and 1913^ was from 10 to 13 inches, and an average of the 

 16 measurements taken {i.e. the minimum and maximum for each of 

 the four hills in both seasons), which may be taken as the approximate 

 mean length of internode, is ll^.'j inches; for comparison with this 

 50 readings for English ^ hops (25 minima and 25 maxima) were taken 

 at random and the average was foimd to be 1048 inches or approxi- 

 mately one inch less than the average for the Oregon males. This 

 suggests that some varieties may possess a factor for long internodes, 

 but data to hand are insufficient for a definite statement on this point. 

 It may be interesting to note, however, in this connection that three 

 plants (ref. nos. K 1, N 52, and 12), each of which is a seedling 

 of a Canterbury Whitebine crossed unth an Oregon <? hop, have produced 

 internodes 14 inches in length. 



^ Vigour in a seedling is probably often due to the stimulus resulting from fertilization. 

 2 Unfortunately throe of the hills sueeunibed to "nettle-head" disease and had to 

 be removed before observations were resumed in 1914. 



