462 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [yUNE 
to have been very nearly synchronous, judging by the position of the 
sports along that part of the branches formed during the year. 
The appearance of similar sports along successive internodes has 
led to the belief that each node and its appendages may be considerea 
a plant unit of which the next node is an offspring. In this sense the 
successive appearance of similar sports along the same branch may be 
looked upon as a case of heredity. The simultaneous appearance of 
similar sports in neighboring branches or trees, however, indicates 
that this explanation is not sufficient. In order to arrive at a proper 
basis for the interpretation of these facts it is necessary to know the 
life history of the plant. For instance, at what time of the year does 
the elm leaf begin to differentiate its cells into those which shall 
become a part of the midrib, and those which shall not? At what 
time of the year do the leaf blades begin their development? When 
are the forms of the tips of ash and dogwood leaves determined? Is 
it not during the vicissitudes of autumn, the winter months, and very 
early spring ? It is believed that a further study of this subject will 
indicate that freaks of a marked kind often accompany very marked 
meteorological irregularities, ae that there is often a vital connection 
between the two. 
In a similar manner it has been noticed that ash twigs with three 
leaves at a node are formed more commonly on the young shoots 
which spring up from the stump of the tree the first year after the 
tree has been cut down. In other words, while we know as yet very 
— dittle about the conditions which give rise to sports, it is beginning to 
be evident that even these evanescent freaks of nature stand in rela- 
s tionship. to other conditions as cause and effect; that they are spo- 
_ radic attempts on the part of nature to accommodate itself to variant 
= conditions at ekorns ill understood. 
_ These sports belong, perhaps, to the same order as those peculiar 
mons aoa fish so popular with the Chinese, gold fish with 
i 
ore the are hatched.—Ave. F. Forrste, Dayton, Ohio. — 
d, it is said, by shaking up the eggs of fishes vio- 
