Plaiitago Lanccolata Raniosa. 153 



seedling grows out into a short, somewhat obhque. rhi- 

 zom which produces a rosette of radical leaves. Ears 

 are formed in the axils of the higher leaves but rosettes 

 of the second order grow out from the axils of the lower 

 ones. In the second summer the primary and secondary 

 rosettes behave in the same way, again producing ears 

 above and secondary rosettes below. If the plant grows 

 very rol^ustly it may consist of as many as 10-20 single 

 rosettes; if it is a ramosa every rosette produces branched 

 ears, at least on some stalks. Sometimes all the ears 

 of the whole plant are branched, in which case it is per- 

 fectly easy to see that there is no bud-variation. In its 

 second year a single plant may often produce more than 

 50 branched ears. 



The culture of 1897 contained a plant which exhibited 

 a bud-variation. The seeds of its branched ears, har- 

 vested in the first year, had produced 89 individuals that 

 flowered, of which ?)6 (40%) were atavists. The plant 

 in question consisted, in the autumn of its second year, 

 of more than 25 single rosettes which were carefully 

 isolated, and planted separately. Only the seven strong- 

 est ones survived this operation. I kept them all in their 

 pots until a sufficient number of ears were visible and 

 then planted them out on two distant beds. On the one 

 I planted four rosettes with unbranched ears, on the 

 other, three with branched ears. The four former pro- 

 duced, together, over 200 strong ears, all unbranched 

 witli the exception of a single one which bore a small 

 lateral branch at its base. The three latter formed both 

 unbranched and more or less richly branched inflores- 

 cences, but during the whole summer the unbranched 

 ears were all cut off before they flowered. The harvest 

 from the two beds, gathered and sown separately, gave 



