1901.] NATURAL SCIENXES OF PHILADELPHIA. 355 



"Lincoln, Neb., Dec. 29, 1900. 



''My Dear Professor Meehan .-—In regard to the bending of the 

 mature internodes of conifers, I may say that it was in 1884 that I 

 made the lirst pubhc statement before the Botanical Chib of the 

 A. A. A. S., or possibly before the Biological Section itself. It was 

 to the effect that in the spring of the year 1882 (exactly April 8) a 

 tornado crossed the campus of the Agricultural College at Ames, 

 la , aud among other things which it did, it partly uprooted a 

 number of conifers, bending them over almost to the ground in 

 some cases. After a while I noticed that these trees were bending 

 upward, and that the bending was not confined to the youngest 

 internodes, but that the older internodes were more or less bent 

 also. I noticed this particularly in the case of some Balsam Fir 

 trees, Abies balsamea, in which the bending extended several years 

 back of the time when the trees were first partly uprooted. 



" This year (.in August) I had the opportunity of noticing the 

 same thing in connection with the Foxtail Pine, Pinus fiexilis 

 var. Marruyana, in the Yellowstone Park A slender tree had 

 been bent to the ground by the fall of a larger tree, and yet the 

 smaller tree had been able to bend a considerable portion of its 

 top so as to bring it approximately erect. A careful examination 

 of the larger tree in regard to the time of its fall made it certain 

 that several of the mature internodes of the smaller tree bent 

 after reaching the horizontal position. I have seen something 

 like this in case of the destruction of the central * leader ' of the 

 Austrian Pines on the University campus, during the past ten or 

 twelve years, but these cases are not as striiiing as those cited 

 above. 



" I am glad that you are to bring this out, as I know that it 

 will be so done that there will be no doul)t at all in regard to it. 

 " I am very truly, etc., 



"Charles E. Bessey." 



My own work began by inclining an Arbor Vita, Thuja occiden- 

 talis, to an angle of about 45°. It was about eight feet high and 

 perfectly straight. About the middle of May the following year 

 the apex began to curve upwardly. The process continued for 

 about three weeks, by which time the curving had extended down 

 to some three feet, reaching the five-year-old wood of the main 

 stem. In the course of this process the upper portion, that had 

 commenced the incurving motion, would again become erect, so 

 that the curve would only occupy a few feet in extent in the region 

 of the three to five-year-old wood. The upper or erect portion 

 would, however, be considerably out of line with the perpendicular 



