498 The Inconstancy of Fasciatcd Races. 



instance of a quadri-radiate apex on a branched indi- 

 vidual (1893). Tri-radiate fasciated heads have often 

 been found in Composites ; for instance in Chrysanthe- 

 niiun LcucantJiennim, HcUanthns annuus and Erigcron 

 hcUidiflorus. In the latter species these have occurred 

 with tolerable frequency in my garden. All these cases 

 are greatly in need of a closer investigation. 



For the production of a fasciation the presence of the 

 internal factor is not of itself sufficient. Favorable con- 

 ditions of life are also quite necessary. The stronger a 

 plant or a branch is, the more liable is it to expand and 

 flatten out. This is best seen in those biennial or peren- 

 nial plants which occasionally have the power of flower- 

 ing in the first year. If they do this, either only small 

 fasciations, or none at all, are developed, whilst it is 

 amongst the specimens which remain in the rosette stage 

 during the first year and do not develop their stem till 

 the second, i. e., after they have undergone considerable 

 increase in strength, that the most numerous and finest 

 fasciations will be found. Thus, for instance, I obtained 

 through the kindness of Professor Lagerheim from 

 Stockholm seeds of a fasciated plant of Hicraciuni iiiu- 

 bcllafmn. and in the summer of 1901 I had from these 

 a bed with nearly a hundred plants without a trace of 

 fasciation. Some plants, however, did not make a stem 

 that year but, after they had survived the winter, pro- 

 duced in the following spring some beautiful expanded 

 stems with comb-shaped inflorescences at the top. The 

 same occurred in my cultures of Aster TripoUuni, Picris 

 hieracioides, Oenothera Lamarck'iana and others. The 

 first species, when grown as an annual, developed tall 

 stems which remained fairly cylindrical in the lower part, 

 and then began to flatten, without, however, attaining 



