106 3 -- BOTANICAL GAZETTE [avoust 
terminal one exerts a stronger attraction than the lateral ones. If 
we cut off the terminal bud the lateral ones develop, and GogBEL 
(3, p- 418) has shown that if we cut off all the shoot buds those on the 
leaves develop. His explanation is that the stronger points of attrac 
tion being no longer active, the ‘building material” is drawn toward 
the points of “weaker attraction,” i. e., the growing points of the 
leaves. 
Such a conception is scarcely in harmony with the principles 
that control the movement of materials.in plants. Any substance in 
solution in the plant necessarily follows the general laws of solutions, — 
and will diffuse toward any point only when there is less of it there 
than at the place from which it moves. A movement of constructive 
materials from the leaves or cotyledons only occurs when there is 
more of it in solution there than elsewhere, and if the flow is directed _ 
toward the terminal bud it is only because that is the point of least 
concentration. If at any time there were less in the lateral buds than 
in the terminal one, it would diffuse into the former. The fact of 
any food material moving toward the terminal part and past the 
lateral buds is positive evidence that the terminal bud contains less : 
of this in solution (and it is only in solution that it would be available). : 
than the others. There is no evidence for assuming that the food 
is ‘‘attracted” into certain buds in sufficient quantity to start Lod : 
and not into others; for until growth starts all will contain an equ — 
amount, and afterwards, if food continues to move toward tall 
buds and not toward others it can only be because growth (or some | 
other cause) keeps the amount in the former constantly less than in 
the latter. 
Thus there is no ground for the supposition that the buds t 
develop in regeneration are any better supplied with food after © 
start to sprout than before, and that when they do not develop; 
GOEBEL’s hypothesis implies, it is. because of lack of food. Fre 
quently they are stored with food and will begin to develop $0 sok 
as isolated from the parent plant. Starvation, as we know, Wi" 
cause growth to cease until it is far more severe than it is ever likely 
to be on any well-nourished plant; and, as MorcAN (7, P- 27) Be 
pointed out, animals regenerate even while starving to death. 
Experiment 8.—From young shoots of Salix and Lycium the 
