REJUVENESCENCE IN NATURE. 27 



portion; moreover, Melocactus normally exhibits formation 

 of sprouts in the terminal tuft of flowers, in which (as in all 

 CacteaB) the flowers stand laterally. The palms are also 

 mentioned as plants which usually form no sprouts ; but 

 leaving out Cucifera thebaica, which acquires a multiple 

 crown by the formation of leafy branches, the inflorescences 

 originating in the axils of the leaves are lateral sprouts. 

 Coryplia umbraculifera, with terminal inflorescence, has, 

 in the inflorescence itself, i. e. in the hypsophyllary leaf re- 

 gion, an extremely rich ramification, carried out to many 

 degrees, and in addition to this, sends out sprouts from the 

 root, at the time of the maturation of the fruit.* Cycas 

 would have better right than the palms to be regarded as 

 a plant devoid of sprouts, at all events if the cone- 

 or Ananas-like male blossom is terminal, as Richard 

 expressly states. But Rumph says of Cycas circinalis, 

 that the stem at first grows very slowly, but afterwards 

 more rapidly, particularly when it has borne the "ananas." 

 Such a continuation of the growth of the stem can, how- 

 ever, only be conceived through the formation of a lateral 

 sprout, if the male blossom is actually terminal, or, if a 

 direct prolongation of the stem occurs, the male blossom 

 must be a lateral sprout. The female tree of Cycas 

 circinalis is stated by Rheede f to divide frequently into 

 four or five tops when old, which again can only take 

 place by the formation of sprouts. Lastly, in Cycas 

 revoluta, formation of sprouts from the lower part of 

 oldish stems, mostly close down to the ground, is quite a 

 common phenomenon, and may be seen in every old 

 trunk in our gardens; recurring moreover in the fossil 

 stems of Cycadea3. \ Many Ferns, especially most tree- 

 ferns, would appear as sproutless plants, in the strictest 

 sense of the word, were not the entire Fern stem itself a 



* Vide Mohl, in Martius's ' History of the Palms.' The palms are also 

 very subject to subterraneous branching, arid lateral sprouts sometimes break 

 out from old leaf-axils on full-grown trunks. A. H. 



t Hist. Malabar., iii, t. 20, fig. 3. 



t See plates in Buckland's ' Geology and Mineralogy,' t. 58, 60, 61. 



