54 THE PHENOMENON OF 



the sprout, after many years' vibration, runs through, as 

 it were by a fresh impulse, to the goal, and thus con- 

 cludes its growth, or it sinks back again to infinity, 

 after each new flight upward. Both kinds of behaviour 

 are represented not only among woody plants, but also 

 among perennial herbs and bulbous plants. In Quercus, 

 Faffus, Populus, Xylosteum, and Camellia, all the euphyl- 

 lary sprouts return at the tops to cataphyllary formation, 

 continuing their growth in the following year from the 

 terminal bud, with a new euphyllary shoot. They acquire 

 by this the power of infinite growth, which indeed finally 

 finds obstacles in old trees, but is made good by taking 

 off slips and grafts. If we compare with these, Acer, 

 ^Esculus, Juglans, Rhododendron, &c., we find the same 

 condition during a more or less extensive series of years, 

 but at last, when the growth has elevated the plants 

 sufficiently above the earth, the shoot is sufficiently in- 

 vigorated and limited by repeated periodical renovation. 

 It does not return to the formation of cataphyllary leaves, 

 but advances to the formation of the inflorescence (with 

 or without a terminal flower), and then comes to the end 

 of its growth. In Juglans, only, the female inflorescence 

 is attained in this manner, while the male catkins appear 

 as lateral branches. Rhododendron is remarkable, from 

 the fact that the terminal shoot of the sprout, which 

 appears (on branches of full-grown " stocks") mostly in 

 the third year, consequently after two intermissions 

 (Absdtze) with cataphyllary and euphyllary formations, 

 overleaps the euphyllary formation, and passes at once 

 from the cataphyllary leaves (bud-scales of the last ter- 

 minal bud) to hypsophyllary formations, the bracts from 

 the axils of which the flowers arise. Side by side with 

 the first-named examples (with infinite rising and sinking 

 Rejuvenescence), we may place Hepatica, Adoxa, and 

 Oxalis Acetosella, from among the perennial herbs. The 

 Hepatica every spring produces a bud composed of eight 

 scale-like cataphyllary leaves, followed by three euphyllary 

 leaves ; after this, it recurs to the formation of a similar 



