C. A. BAEBER 97 



As instances of these side issues, some of which were early incorporated 

 in the work, while others were abandoned after a shorter or longer period of 

 observation, may be mentioned the following. In not a few cases, hints were 

 obtained as to subdivisions and cleavages in the groups of canes, by transitional 

 forms, and these will be referred to later. In the young plants, the relative 

 rates of cane formation in different varieties and groups, the varying length 

 of the tillering period, the relative abundance of the buds of different orders, 

 the large proportion of great white " clawed " buds in certain varieties 

 which suggested a series of broods or flushes of branches, the relative 

 rapidity of development of the main shoots compared with the side branches, 

 and the form assumed by the young branches, often seen in the form of a fan 

 at first, and quickly rearranging themselves to an orderly bunch. 



In the older plants, the frequency of a symmetrical arrangement, in 

 ground plan, of the branches when viewed from below, the arrangement 

 and the orientation of the buds on successive branches^ the suppression 

 of buds on the inner side of the branches or where congestion occurred ; 

 the differing basal curvature of branches of different orders, the squeezing 

 out of branches once formed, the way in which in some groups the 

 branches rapidly became parallel while in others they curved outwards 

 symmetrically or developed into an irregular mass, the manner in which 

 the bud below a set curved upwards, and so on ; the relative develop- 

 ment of the middle and end buds of a set and the relative value of the 

 position of a bud, whether underneath the set, at the side or on the top ; the 

 varying length of the basal, short -jointed portion of the cane in branches of 

 different orders, the effect on this of curvature, with the general result that the 

 mature form of the cane was not assumed until the curved portion was passed, 

 the varying length of the joints in the first two feet ; the different periods 

 at which the final cane crop could be safely forecasted by the presence or absence 

 of great shoots on the plant, the application of this to the order of dissection 

 of the varieties ; the changes in thickness and shape of the cane, the occasional 

 presence of transverse or median flattening and the relative tereteness of the 

 branches at two feet from the base in different varieties, the narrowing or 

 thickening upwards after the average thickness had been attained, this varying 

 both in different varieties and in the branches of different orders, the thickness 

 and woodiness of the branches at their origin and the consequent firmness of 

 attachment ; the difficulties experienced in dissection and in the formation 

 of diagrams and formulae, due to the breaking off of branches, the intricacy 

 of their development, the squeezing out of shoots, the numerous deaths, the 

 occasional presence of facultative branches, where a branch of a higher order 



