344 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ NOVEMBER 
that photosynthesis was carried on chiefly in the tissues of the 
stem itself, which had an unusually bright green color and deli- 
cate texture. No buds were produced in the axils of these 
reduced leaves until within 6-8™ of the crest, above which point 
each axil produced a sessile flower bud. The whole side of the 
stem was covered with numer- 
ous fine ridges which, on 
being traced to their origin, 
were found to originate in 
the midribs of the leaves. 
According to Masters? “the 
striae which these stems 
almost invariably present 
exhibit the lines of junction” 
between the stems by whose 
union the fasciated stem is 
formed ; but this certainly 
cannot be true of the striae 
in this case. 
In a fasciated stem of 
Echium vulgare L. there was 
found a greater width near 
the ground than at a point 
just below the widening at 
the crest. Here too the 
FIGs. 1, 2.—7, Leaf of Pelargonium sp. with striae are simply the grooves 
re blades. 2, Cross section through blades between ridges, which are 
of leaf shown in fg. 7, showing the reflection: ; 
all plainly traceable to the 
midribs of the leaves and are undoubtedly the lines beneath 
which lie the fibrovascular bundles originating in the leaves. 
By offering a different explanation of these striae the evidence 
of the union of stems in fasciation is lessened by so much, 
though not destroyed, since a union may exist without the 
existence of an evident line of union. 
3 Vegetable Teratology 16. London, 1869. 
