aa 
ADAPTIVE MODIFICATIONS AND SPORTS 21 
the middle and upper leaves a great deal larger, the internodes 
longer but weaker, the inflorescence narrower and more axillary. 
Result of peculiar and rich nutrition; seen repeated in several 
separated examples. 
2. Impoverished plants, with little leaves and stems. 
3. Taller-stemmed plants, growing close together. 
4. Low subremote plants. 
5. Petiole-flowering plants, where the main stem becomes 
abruptly reduced, slight and short, resembling the preceding 
petiole, but bearing a half-dozen scale-like rudimentary leaves and 
a single head. Such a state occurs in similar conditions among 
most if not all of the Macrophyili, and seems due to late develop- 
ment (shaded usually by other plants of its own kind) a single 
head being at once developed without completing the usual inter- 
mediate stages. 
6. Non-flowering plants in deep shade. 
For similar details see the description of species following, 
especially the adaptive variants of A. divaricatus L. 
Variations seemingly of the nature of sports are not wholly ab- 
sent from the root-propagated plants, however, though less usual. 
For example, a certain colony of A. divaricatus in Central Park, 
N. Y., remained in a state of nature undisturbed for the seven years 
ending 1902 (the older central plants perished that winter, perhaps 
from old age). It consisted of as many as one hundred plants, of 
equal size and all alike in general as regards leaf, stem, branching 
and inflorescence ; but differing as to the color of the rays. All 
the plants were normally white-rayed, but the central plants had 
their rays begin to turn a coppery red during early flowering or by 
the end of the first week, becoming completely so in another week, 
and fading somewhat in a week more. There were three grades 
of plants in this colony as to color: a, those remaining a dingy 
white throughout blossoming ; 2, the central plants, turning cop- 
pery-red; c, a number of outer plants which partook of the copper- 
color change to a less degree and more slowly. Throughout the 
seven years the same plants kept true to character, the same por- 
tion of the group remaining white each year, the same portion 
changing completely, and the same portion changing partially. 
There was no difference observable in the nutrition or other con- 
