c. a. barber 133 



(8) General notes on the characters of the groups and their 



MODE OF branching. 



It will be impossible within reasonable limits to discuss the many interesting 

 facts observed in the dissections of the cane clumps of the different varieties 

 in each group. The diagrams and measurements of the individual plants are 

 added to the already large mass of notes on the morphology of canes collected 

 in the office files. A few general notes are here given on the characters of 

 branching in each group and a selection has been made of a few more or less 

 typical diagrams and photographs to illustrate its general character. For 

 photographs, we have had to rely entirely on 1916-17 dissections, because, 

 from pressure of work and the high price of materials, we were unable to photo- 

 graph the dissected plants in the second year. The main shoot a can bo 

 distinguished in these photographs by a white paper band fastened round it. 

 As the full scheme of diagrams was not developed imtil 1917-18, it has not 

 always been easy to give th.e full diagrams of the particular plants photo- 

 graphed, although this has been done where possible. As an instance of the 

 method, Plates XXVIII-XXX may be referred to. In Plate XXVIII, a clump 

 of the dwarf canes of Hemja, in the Mungo group, has been photographed as it 

 reached the laboratory ; Plate XXIX gives photographs of the four dissected 

 plants in this clump, and in the lower half of Plate XXX the diagrams of the 

 four plants are reproduced. There are few photographs available of the 

 Thick canes, as less attention was paid to this class in the first year, but, besides 

 a dissection of Java, a picture is reproduced of a ratooned Red Mauritius cane, 

 and its diagram is appended. In the wild Saccharums, photographs are given 

 of S. Munja, S. arundinuceutu, and the two chief varieties of S. spontaneum 

 (PI. XXXIV) ; further pictures may be found in Plate II of Memoir III and 

 Plate XXI of Memoir II. Saccharum Narenga is illustrated on Plates IX 

 and X of Memoir II and needs no repetition. For fuller illustrations of these 

 wild Saccharums, reference may be made to the excellent monograph by Hole in 

 the Indian Forest Memoirs.^ The diagrams of Saccharum Munja and Saccharum 

 Narenga are less instructive, in that these species do not form canes in the strict 

 sense, but their grass-like habit may be inferred from the diagrauLS given on Plate 

 XXXVII, where the '" canes '" refer to shoots forming solid canes at their bases. 



Saretha Group. 



The Saretha group is somewhat difficult to describe without going into 

 great detail, as it consists of two well-marked sections, the main characters 



^ Hole, R. S. On some Indian Fc r.st Orassos and their Oecology. Ind. For. Mem., 

 For. Bot. Ser., Vol. I, Part 1. 1911. 



