88 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [Proc. 3D Ser. 



reproduction is probably the result of some external stimu- 

 lus or stimuli acting upon the plant which, under unchanged 

 conditions, would continue to reproduce itself by seeds if 

 at all. This method of vegetative reproduction is probably 

 sufficient, even under present climatic and other conditions, 

 to secure the continuance of redwood forests in the regions 

 where they now occur, provided lumbering operations are 

 so conducted that the production of suckers and sprouts is 

 not made impossible by destructive fires. 



II. Peculiarities of Some Vegetatively Produced 

 Young Redwoods. 



A. Fasciation. 



Fasciation of the young suckers coming up around the 

 trunks of redwoods is not uncommon. The view advocated 

 by Frank (1896), that they are the consequences of an 

 excess of food substances, is strengthened by the time and 

 manner of their appearance. Frank says that fasciations 

 on other plants appear especially when the ordinary 

 branches have been removed or injured in any way. We 

 have seen that the redwoods produce suckers probably 

 only when stimulated to do so by external influences, espe- 

 cially by the removal or at least the injury of the parts above 

 ground. The wound, or other injury, which stimulates the 

 redwood to form suckers, may occur when there is such an 

 abundance of food in immediately usable form, that the 

 production and growth of suckers is so prolific as to insure 

 the fusion of the adjacent parenchymatous parts of the very 

 young branches. In the autumn and early winter, I have 

 had no difficulty in finding fasciated redwood suckers in the 

 Arboretum of Stanford University; they are very notice- 

 able. In the spring and summer months they are by no 

 means so common. I have found no new ones this spring, 

 though there are many young suckers on the redwoods in 

 the Arboretum. Summer, at least the earlier half of the 

 dry season, is the time of food manufacture and storage. 

 In the latter half of the dry season little food can be manu- 

 factured because only little water is obtainable. In autumn 



