293 



of botanists to re-discover the plant in Echo Lake and elsewhere. 

 Probabl}^ late in August or early in September the plant may be 

 fonnd in better condition and larger numbers. In the Muskoka 

 specimens I found only one in which the valves of the silicle 

 were shed. 



Buffalo, Sep. 23d, 1889. 



The Wave Growth of Corydalis sempervirens.* 



One of the most interesting of the new facts observed by me 



on the trip to the Muskoka Lakes was what I may term a re- 

 coil in the wave growth in Corydalis scmpervireiis^ which I believe 

 IS so far without a parallel. I remarked a few days ago before 

 the Association, that growth in plants was not by slow and regu- 

 lar modification, but in rhythms or waves, and that it was the 

 varying intensity of these waves that largely influenced those 

 variations that gave character to genera and species. So far as 

 1 have gone, I have noticed but a flow and a reflex action. In 

 Compositce^ for instance, the flower buds were formed at the base 

 of the branchlets of the panicle, and which after reaching a cer- 

 tam size, slept as it were until the terminal bud was formed, and 

 then the advance wave flowed downwards, awakening the flower 

 to renewed growth and perfect bloom. This was especially ob- 

 servable in Liatrls. In this Corydalis there was a similar forma- 

 tion and sleeping of the buds, till the apical bud was reached, 

 which kept on without resting till fully formed and the seed ves- 

 sel went on the road to maturity. Instead, however, of the next 

 in order downward being started into a renewed growth, as in 

 tomposttce^ it was the lower on the five-flowered raceme that 

 started the second growth wave, when the other three upwards, 

 successively followed. The relative length of the immature seed 

 vessels showed that the apical flower, or No. 5, opened first, 

 which was followed by the lowest as No. i, then No. 2, 3, and 4. 

 In the Fig. 179, Botanical Magazine, this arrangement is 

 faithfully given by the artist, though it has been left to our time 

 to note it, and to discover its significance. 



Thomas Meeiian. 



*Read before the Botanical Club, A. A. A. S., at the Toronto Meeting. Sep- 

 tember i, 1889. 



ft; sempervirens {\^, 1753), Pers. iSo6 ; C, ghutra, Pursh, 1S14. 



