462 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
cocious branch originated near the callus which had formed 
over it. ; 
The importance of this curious case of precocity is its possible 
bearing upon the production of earlier developing varieties of shade or 
fruit trees. The literature may be full of references to the matter, but 
so far as | am aware no one has made the attempt to originate an early 
leafing variety of ornamental trees by wounding the branches and 
looking for precocious shoots from the wounds, from which to propa- 
gate by buds or cuttings. It is possible that cuttings taken from a 
branch originating in this way may prove no earlier than the mother 
plant, but there is also a possibility that the wound has led to the pro- 
duction of an adventive bud which has varied in the direction of 
_ precocity. 
I am confident that in such cultures as the hop, where the plant 
has been propagated asexually for centuries, bud variation plays an 
important part in the formation of new strains or races; and new 
Citrus varieties are suspected to have originated in this way. Just how 
«great this variation is, and how often it can be utilized, remains a ques- 
_ tion for research. The case here described seemed so striking that I 
- thought it worthy of a short note and a photograph. There was no 
_ sign of the branch having been budded with a different variety, and, 
unfortunately, I do not know the species of the tree. In fact, the 
erest of the case only ees to me after I was many miles away 
‘Tt onl be interesting to know whether the same branch devel- 
ed a second year much earlier than the other branches of the tree, 
ether this ‘precocity: was the result of a direct but transitory 
timulus of the wound, or a constant character of the bud produced 
near the wound.—Davip G. FatrcHILp, eee of cpa tis 
Vas agen, dD. (ae 
MERICAL VARIATION OF ‘THE RAY FLOWERS OF 
oS S 
(wit ONE FIGURE) Rem ae 
E fo oi ng observations constitute reli tv mares the 
