116 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



examined as regards their general condition, height, branching, 

 dwarf-shoots, etc., by L. Earn Lai Sethi, M.Sc, Demonstrator of 

 Botany at the Government College. As he had to leave for Europe 

 immediately after the completion of these observations the writer 

 looked up the literature and prepared the analysis. The seedlings 

 were about four years of age and varied in height from 11 inches to 

 22 inches. All the plants had been kept under the same conditions 

 along with many others. 



As is well known young seedlings bear only scattered green leaves 

 and scale-leaves and dwarf-shoots are developed only gradually. Of 

 the 101 seedlings one did not possess any dwarf-shoots at all and was 

 unbranched. Otherwise the plant was erect and healthy so far as 

 could be seen. No further notice will be taken of this plant. All 

 the remaining one hundred possessed dwarf-shoots and a great many 

 possessed long shoots in addition. No plants were found with 

 abnormal shoots only, but normal and abnormal shoots were mixed 

 in more than one half, 57 per cent, to be exact. The abnormal num- 

 ber of needles was 2, 4 or 5. No spur was found with 1 or more 

 than 5 needles. The analysis is given below : — 



Plants examined : 100. All with dwarf-shoots. 

 Plants with 3-leaved shoots only 43 



Plants with abnormal shoots in addition to 3-leaved shoots 57 

 Plants with 2-leaved abnormal shoots only 2 \ 



Do. 4-leaved abnormal shoots only 40 



Do. 5-leaved abnormal shoots only 2 



Do. 2-and 4-leaved abnormal shoots 6 V 57 



Do. 2-and 5-leaved abnormal shoots 



Do. 4-and 5-leaved abnormal shoots 3 



Do. 2 — 4-and 5-leaved abnormal shoots 4 i 



It will bo seen from the above that plants with 4-leaved 

 abnormal shoots only are by far the most common. If we add to these 

 the plants that bear 4-leaved shoots in addition to other abnormal 

 shoots the number becomes still larger, i.e., 53. The relative number 

 of shoots is given below : — 



Plants examined : 100 as above, of which 57 



possessed abnormal shoots. 

 2-Ieaved shoots in all the plants 17 



4-leaved shoots in all the plants 145 



5-leaved shoots in all the plants 11 



It is clear that the 4-leaved shoots are by far the most common 

 of all the abnormal shoots. It may be mentioned here that the 

 number of 3-leaved shoots on these plants was very variable. It 

 ranged from a few to about 300 on each plant. 



