250 ZONES AND REGIONS [Pt. Ill, Sect. ]l 



menon of the production of foliage to what a high degree the separate 

 branches of many tropical woody plants are individualized. The same 

 truth often holds good in the production of flowers. Frequently e 

 sino-le bough is in blossom, while the other boughs remain in a conditio: 

 of mere vegetative activity but bear flowers at other times. The pheno- 

 menon is very striking in the mango-tree and in the silk-cotton- tree! 

 Eriodendron anfractuosum, in which an area of the crown of about the 

 extent that would be occupied by a large branch alone bears flower at oik 

 time, and then subsequently other similar areas bear flower. Fritz Aliilk: 

 mentions a gigantic fig-tree growing at Blumenau, the different boughs 

 of which bear fruit at different seasons '. In other cases this phenomenor 

 is less obvious, as it is not all the branches of a thick bough at one time 

 but smaller systems of branches of a higher order, or even individual twigs 

 that exhibit alternate rest and activity in the reproductive processes. One 

 and the same shoot never blossoms and bears fruit uninterruptedl)'. 



Most of the plants whose flowering period is independent of the seasoi 

 produce their flowers, as may readily be understood, at different times, anc 

 therefore a tree decked in full floral array ma}' frequently be seen close 

 to another tree of the same species bearing ripe fruit only. 



Yet in a few species with a short blossoming period it strangel) 

 happens, tlial within a more or less extensive distriet, frequently comprising 

 many square miles, all the individual plants of one species come into blosson 

 on the same day. 



The first to recognize a fact of this nature, as in the case of so manj 

 other features of tropical plant-life, was Fritz Miiller, who noticed it ir 

 three species of the iridaceous genus Marica flowering at different times 

 Subsequently Mr. Ridley at Singapore informed me that a local epiphytie 

 orchid (Dendrobium crumenatum, Sw.) behaved in a similar way. Finally 

 during my visit to Buitenzorg Dr. Treub drew my attention to the habit o 

 this orchid, which is common everywhere in West and Central Java. Oi 

 December 13, 1889, all the individual plants that I saw in Buitenzorg (whicl 

 is in West Java) and its vicinity were opening the whole of their flower-buds 

 On January 19, 1890, I met with the same phenomenon at Samaran^ 

 in Central Java ; and as I learnt, the Dendrobium had also blossomed a 

 about the same time at Buitenzorg. On February 19 I saw the same 

 thing at Garut, on the high plateau of Preanger, and again on March 

 at Buitenzorg. Some other less common orchids appear also to act ii 

 a similar way. 



Comparable perhaps with the above strange -phenomena is the behavioii 

 of certain bamboos that blossom only after cycles of a number of years 

 and then all simultaneously within an extensive province. Thus thi 

 bamboos in the South Brazilian provinces of St. Catherina and Rio Granele, 



' Fritz Miiller, op. cit, p. 392. ' 



