H. M. Leake 231 



publication Balls (1) foreshadows a similar interrelation between the 

 type of secondary branching and the length of the vegetative period 

 in the Egyptian and American upland'. 



Since the publication of the note referred to, a most interesting 

 communication from J. V. Thompson to the Agri-Horticultural Society 

 of India has been met with in the Journal of that Society for the year 

 1841, in which the intimate relation between the type of branching 

 and date of flowering is clearly indicated. In this communication he 

 states : 



" The cultivated varieties of cotton I find may be divided into two 

 classes, viz. early and late kinds ; this precocity or tardiness being 

 inherent in the particular variety, and derived from a peculiarity 

 hitherto unnoticed, and which it will not be difficult to explain. It 

 may be observed that all the varieties have a natural tendency to 

 produce a central main stem furnished with a leaf at intervals of a few 

 inches ; in the axillae of each leaf-stalk resides a pair of germs or buds, 

 placed in the same plane or side by side ; one of these germs is destined 

 to produce flowers only, the other only branches. In the early kinds 

 the former or flowering br'anches alone are developed, while the late 

 kinds expend their force exclusively in the production of multiplying 

 branches. This peculiarity must for ever unfit these late kinds for a 

 cold climate, such as Northern India." For the full communication, 

 which is of some length, the reader is referred to the original source (18). 

 Sufficient has been quoted, however, to show how fully the importance 

 of the connection between the branching habit and the length of the 

 vegetative period had thus early been recognised. The importance of 

 two axillary buds, which is also indicated, has previously been dealt 

 with by the author (12) in a preliminary note but has no concern with 

 the experiments now under treatment. 



It has already been noted, when defining the types which have 

 been employed in these experiments, that the Indian cottons fall into 

 two well-defined groups, those in which the secondary branches are 

 always, or nearly always, monopodia, and those in which the secondary 

 branches are always, or nearly always, sympodia. As long as observation 



1 Since the above was written Bulls. 147 and 155 Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture have been received. In these the authors draw attention 

 to this same point. According to them, however, this character is induced to vary in the 

 types investigated by them as a consequence of change in environment. This and other 

 differences in the method of branching between the observations of these investigators 

 and those of the author are not concerned with the subject matter of this paper and 

 must be left for consideration at a subsequent period. 



