1906] SPALDING—ABSORPTION OF WATER BY LEAVES 279 
branches have been obtainable, but these, as in the preceding species, 
are green, and for a large part of the year the plant has no other 
organ of photosynthesis. So far, then, as present evidence goes, 
absorption through leaves or internodes is not to be predicated of 
either of these plants. 
Zizyphus lycioides. 
After the preliminary experiments already recorded, very little 
satisfactory material for the study of this species was obtainable, 
as the plant cast its leaves and remained bare until after the period 
of study was concluded. From observations made early in the 
year, however, it appears that leafless shoots of Zizyphus do not 
absorb water in appreciable quantity, but that leafy shoots have 
considerable absorptive capacity, indicating that it is the leaves 
and not the internodes through which absorption takes place. 
Fouquieria splendens. 
Leafy shoots of the ocotillo, as shown by Table XI, absorb con- 
siderable water when wet for some time after drying. As in various 
other cases, the loss of weight on drying the shoots after wetting 
is considerably more rapid than the preceding gain by absorption. 
TABLE XI. 
FOUQUIERIA SPLENDENS. January I905. 
No.| Date Time Weight in/I per pl as Conditions 
I} Jan. 26 | 12:00 M. 1.614 In each case loss followed drying and 
gain followed wetting the sp-eci 
mens during the periods indicated 
in the time column. 
27 | 10:00 A.M. | 1.582 | 1.9 loss 
28 | 11:40 1.664 | 5.2 gain 
3:20 P.M. | 1.598 | 4.0 loss 
3° | zio2 Ta§I6. 500" 
3:28 1.530 | 0.8 gain 
4:09 1.523 | 0.5 loss 
31 | 4:15 1.490 
Reb. = £532 1.585 
2 | Jan. 26 2:53 POM. 4s2t4 
27 | to:1§ A.M. | 4.112 | 2.4 loss 
28 | 11:45 4.059 | 1.3 loss 
30 | 2:04 P.M. | 4.363 | 7.5 gain 
3:04 4-255 2.5 loss 
4:02 4.197 | 1.4 
Biol tae ACM: | S461, rea: 77 
2:45 P.M. | 3.840 | 2.1 gain 
3245 3-798 | 1.1 loss 
