270 DR. P. GROOM ON THE LONGITUDINAL 
The first branches to appear are either those in the axils of the first pair of foliage-leaves 
or, less frequently, of the cotyledons. Accessory branches are often produced beneath 
the true axillary ones, and in one case (seedling Y) arose in an interpetiolar position 
between the cotyledons. Associated with the early outgrowth of the basal branches 
are frequent fusions between these and the main axis or the subtending leaf. Higher 
up the leaves become more apparently alternate; the decussate divergence is lost. 
Nevertheless the divergence of the leaves of the seedling supplies evidence conforming 
with the view that the phyllotaxis was originally opposite : for instance, in specimen D 5 
the cotyledons and the first four pairs of leaves showed perfect or approximate decussate 
divergence, though the pairs of leaves were not all opposite as regards height of 
insertion. 
In the subjoined Table the numbers given are lengths in millimetres of the various 
stems which were still in active growth. Each horizontal line gives particulars con- 
cerning one seedling, the parts referred to being named at the heads of the vertical 
columns. The numbers in brackets beneath those recording the stem-lengths denote 
the length of the successive internodes. ` “ Shorter ” indicates that the branch was of 
length less than that of the branch at the immediately preceding node. 
$6 
LM Length of branches subtended by : 
Bes 
283865 
^ B2 
= a E ^ = E Brest Second Third pair 
me 20 oun : : m 
= £ £ = a hs tone Ws ang af lasek: j of er 
8$ | Pes EE 
E ds 4 I. I. II. II HLo S m. pm 
D3....| 76 10 bud. bud. bud. | bud. | | 
D11 young. young. 30 34 shorter. ^ — shorter. | 
(£5, 55,8 .. . .) (4 (young)... .) (4 (young)... .) (185... .)| (21 . . . .) (8 (young)... .) (8 (young). ...) 
D7..f 120 35 bud. bud. 30 30 shorter. | shorter. bud. bud. 
(6, 75,8....) iGO (d5,.3... UBL 
BEST 
D5....| 125 40 bud. bud, bud. 55 shorter. | shorter. bud. bud. 
| BEA 
Y (erect) 110 45 80 60 50 50 shorter. shorter. bud. | bud. 
(50, 18, ....) : (40, 11,....) (90... EU Luis) m 
lük ioo 65 70 90 100 105 65 50 shorter. : shorter. 
eue 
ING OEC 110 bud. bud. | 190 160 125 145 adii 
Tio 165 bud bud. | 185 175 225 195 H5 p 
IBI II a 164 bud. short, young. 204 193 174 170 116 " 
| { Re eee mance 
It will be noted that even in the seedling (Y) with an erect main stem the branches 
soon surpassed the main stem as regards length. This particular seedling possibly 
