56 TILLERING IN INDIAN SUGARCANES 



crop time, to determine what joints had been formed during the hot, dry- 

 summer months, and at what sta.^cs the rains attained their maximum and 

 ceased to flood the ground. The rooting and shooting of the canes in damp 

 climates is often avoided by trashing, or pulling off the adherent but dying 

 leaves, and it would be worth while considering the desirability of trashing 

 canes in North India during the rains, in places where these defects are most 

 marked. 



Besides the normal branching of the cane, due to the protrusion of the 

 ordinary buds on the joints, cases of abnormality are not infrequently met 

 with, caused by irregularity in the bud development. Here and there canes 

 have been met with where the joints have been altogether devoid of buds, 

 and Kaghze has been marked in the Coimbatore collection as especially liable 

 to this deformity. Here obviously no branching can take place. In others, 

 double or triple buds have been met with in place of the single bud, and in the 

 usual position. Where double buds occur, they are not infrequently the 

 prelude to a dichotomous splitting of the cane into two equal halves, each 

 then proceeding to grow normally. On passing down the stem, such double 

 buds are seen to be preceded by buds of abnormal width, accompanied by a 

 flattening of the stem (PI. IX). Such cases have been very clearly described 

 by Jeswiet,! and need not be further dealt with here. Among the cases of 

 triple buds, one was noted as being extremely regular in its development, 

 and it. was preserved because of its interesting nature. After four years of 

 reproduction the same abnormality can be seen, showing that it is a heredit- 

 able character of the seedling when propagated by cuttings. 



But the most striking and frequent case of abnormal bud formation is 

 when they are irregularly produced in different parts of the stem without any 

 regard to the usual position. They are often met with in the root zone, for 

 here there is, more or less permanently, meristematic tissue, but they may 

 also appear at almost any part of the joint. They may arise direct from the 

 outer layers of the stem, but more usually they are preceded by the formation 

 of an irregular mass of callus, over which the buds are distributed unevenly, 

 varying from mere pin points of tissue to fully formed buds with scaly leaves. 

 Curious monstrous forms are thus produced, some of which have been selected 

 for illustration on Plates X and XI. They would appear to be commoner 

 on seedlings of certain parentage, although they have been found sporadically 



1 Jeswiet, J. Beschrijving der soorten van het siiikerriet. Erste bijlage. Morphologie 

 van het suikerriet. ArcTiief v. d. Swkerind. in Ned. Ind., Maart, 1916, 



