191 



Miscellaneous. 



in younger and abler hands, and I do hope that progress and success are not fat- 

 distant. The district feels thankful to the late Secretary of the Parent Association 

 for his visit, for such visits at much personal inconvenience are indeed a great 

 encouragement. Owing to the absence of the Agricultural Instructor I could not 

 get at the papers relatiug to the garden, and I am unable to give more definite 

 information regarding it. Last year and this year we have had unusual dry 

 weather and our cultivations are practically nil. We grew some Italian potatoes 

 very successfully and a few cabbages. The " Sixty-days " paddy is thriving well. 

 I distributed the five bushels among villagers and I sowed some myself. 



We want a well for the experimental Garden as well as quarters for the 

 Instructor and the coolies. I think the Gansabhawa with some help from Govern- 

 ment would be able to do these works. What J have to say more on the subject 

 of agriculture in this district I shall reserve for a future paper. 



Lessons in Elementary Botany. III. 



By J. C. Willis. 



We must now consider the ways in which the leaves are arranged upon the 

 plant, or their phyllotaxy, as it is often called. This is by no meaus haphazard, as it 

 may perhaps appear to be at the first glance, but follows definite rules, which for 

 any one plant are practically always the same. 



In a good many plants the leaves are what are still termed, in the language 

 of the botanists of 150 years ago, radical, or spreading out simply at the ground 

 (Plate II) as if from the top of the root. This may be seen in the common weeds of 

 grass lawns and many other plants. In reality the root is crowned by a very short 

 stem from which the leaves spring, but they look almost as if they came from the 

 root. In most other plants the leaves are borne upon the stem above the ground, 

 sometimes evenly spread out along it or along the part which has lately grown, 

 sometimes crowded together at the end. They may be in pairs at each node (as the 

 points where they are borne are termed), in which case one usually faces say North, 

 the other South, and they are called opposite (Plate II), or there may be only one at 

 each node (alternate, Plate IT), or there may be more than two, arranged in a ring or 

 whorl (Plate II). 



Generally speaking the leaves ai'e arranged to spread themselves out to the 

 very best advantage in regard to sun and air, in such a way as to overlap and shade 

 one another as little as possible. It is found by actual measurement that there is a 

 constant angle (supposing there to be no twisting of the stem) between each leaf and 

 the one next above. For instance, in grasses or bamboos this angle is 180° or half the 

 circumference, so that the leaves are in two rows, one on either side of the stem. In 

 many sedges the angle is 120° and the leaves get into three rows. But in most plants 

 the angle is less simple and the number of rows in which the leaves stand may be 

 5, 8, 13, or any of the numbers obtained by adding together the two last written 

 down (e.g., the next number is 21, the next 34, and so on). The angles do not matter 

 to us ; the important thing is that the leaves are spread out in such a way as to 

 shade one another as little as possible. In many trees and shrubs the arrangement 

 on the twigs or branches standing more or less horizontally is different from that 

 on the main stem standing more or less vertically, and the leaves on the former tend 

 to get into two ranks, facing upwards. 



25 



