208 Conard—Fasciation in 
I have yet to find plants of sweet potato entirely free from 
fasciation, though they have been carefully looked for; doubt- 
less, however, many such exist. On counting the stems just 
as they lay on the ground, I found, in a poor location as to 
soil and exposure, 12 per cent of them abnormal, in good rich 
soil 18 per cent. Counting the tips or apices just as they 
came on poor and good soil, the former gave 20 per cent, the 
latter 54 per cent of abnormal growths. The stems show a 
smaller percentage, because even the fasciated ones are normal 
in appearance toward their bases. 
RING-FASCIATION.—A long with the ordinary fasciations there 
appear in the sweet potato, as in other fasciated races, various 
peculiar malformations, such as split or dichotomous branch- 
ing, split fasciations, and especially that remarkable condition 
which has been termed “ring-fasciation.” Of this last I 
would make especial mention, as it occurs in about one-half 
of one per cent of the abnormal stems. 
The ring-fasciated stem is, like the flat fasciated, perfectly 
normal in appearance toward the root. Then, tracing it out- 
ward, it increases in diameter to three or four times the normal 
(one-half inch more or less), its leaves become irregularly placed, 
and finally the rounded growing apex is seen to bea hollow 
ring, instead of a knob of embryonic tissue (Fig. 6). In 
short, the ring-fasciation is a hollow stem, open at the grow- 
ing tip. The hollow portion may include as much as two 
or three feet of the terminal part of a branch, and the cavity 
may reach a quarter of aninch indiameter. On splitting open 
such a hollow stem, small leaves and adventitious roots are 
found in the cavity. These leaves develop acropetally, those 
farthest from the open apex being oldest ; but of course they 
never attain to any considerable size, nor can they become 
actively functional. They are more numerous toward the 
stem tip than lower down. In the case of cuttings planted in 
earth, roots spring from the inside as well as from the outside 
