84 THE LAWS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY 



and put forth two generations of shoots, one of which is fifteen 

 inches in length. 



It may be stated as a general rule, that, in very favorable 

 conditions, very powerfully growing branches will put forth as 

 many as four or five generations of side-shoots, but the vegeta- 

 tive power here expires, and the last generation of shoots are 

 entirely rudimentary, appearing as mere rosettes or clusters of 

 leaves, no intervals of stem whatever being formed between 

 them. 



Hence, the power of a branch to give forth branchlets, is 

 not indefinite but diminishes with each succeeding generation, 

 until the vegetative power ultimately arrives at a minimum. A 

 single glance at the branches of a tree is all that is necessary to sat- 

 isfy the reader that there is a retarded growth in length and thick- 

 ness of each successive generation of shoots or branchlets. And 

 this remission of growth is not founded on a difference of age 

 between the branch and branchlet, nor on a cessation of growth 

 at a certain stage of the same, for all axes, so long as they con- 

 tinue to live, grow forth indefinitely ; but this circumscription 

 of growth is rather founded on a difference in the intensity of 

 growth from the commencement, on a positive loss of vegeta- 

 tive energy. 



When, therefore, the growth of the axis becomes compound, 

 other considerations must enter into our calculations with 

 reference to the development of any individual axis, such as 

 its relative position on the primary axis, or in regard to the 

 number of successive generations. If it occupies an inferior 

 and subordinate position on the primary axis, or in the chain 

 of successive generations, its growth will be necessarily very 

 limited. 



The reader is again referred to the branch on page 31, which 

 we must remind him was copied from Nature. The maximum 

 of ramifying power on the main axis of this branch appears to 

 be about the middle, and is seen in the first branch immediately 

 below the bud-traces, marked '54, or the fourth branch from the 

 bottom. This branch is fifteen inches in length. The tenth 

 branch, just under the bud-trace marked 1857, exhibits the 

 minimum of ramifying power, or a growth of only eight lines. 



