
868 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. |. [Vor. XXXVI. 
on the lower side. By raising a number of the seedlings of 
this plant there was found a marked variation from the typical 
form. In two cases the first nepionic leaves were trifoliolate, 
but both the terminal and lateral leaflets were entire, no sign 
of notches being present. The second leaves in the two cases 
given were typical of the first of the other seedlings, thus 
showing that these two individuals were less accelerated in 
development than the others. These two repeated the char- 
acter of a trifoliolate leaf with entire edges, which is usually 
dropped out in the development of the seedling. 
By comparison with the early spring growth of adult plants, 
the first leaves of some weaker individuals were trifoliolate and 
entire, as are those of the two seedlings noted above. This 
is, then, not an accidental variation, but a true stage, which in 
the seedling is usually skipped by acceleration of development, 
and rarely appears there. In several cases the first leaves were 
like the typical first leaves of the seedling. This, then, shows 
two rates of acceleration, as it takes one longer to arrive at 
a certain stage than it does another. 
A striking similarity is noticed in the leaves immediately 
preceding the flower. At the base of the flower stalk the 
leaves are normal, but higher up the number of leaflets is 
reduced until, a short distance below the flower, there appears 
a trifoliolate leaf with notches varying considerably, some being 
like the typical first nepionic leaf of the seedling, others vari- 
ously notched. The majority, however, are like the seedling. 
The next leaf above usually drops out the notches and has an 
entire outline. This can be directly compared to the earlier 
stage noted in two seedlings and in the average simple leaves 
of spring growth of the adult plant. Just beneath the flower 
is often found a single leaf, entire and exactly comparable to 
the terminal leaflet of the trifoliolate leaf. Thus at the flower 
the leaves retrace the steps which they went through in the 
early growth of the plant and in the reverse order. This last 
stage — the simple leaf below the flower — is more primitive 
than anything that is found in the seedling, showing that local- 
ized stages may be used to fill in the steps which are crowded 
out by the acceleration of development in the seedling. 
