80 
FETCH : 
followed later by another maximum again in July, and then 
rapidly diminishing and ceasing altogether. A similar course 
of growth has been postulated for trees in countries which 
enjoy two well-defined rainy seasons, it being supposed that 
a period of maximum growth would coincide with each wet 
season. The data obtained in the present case do not, how- 
ever, support this conclusion, the growth in general declining 
regularly during the second wet season, or ceasing altogether. 
In exceptional cases a tree may show no increase in girth 
between two consecutive weekly measurements in the growing 
season. Thus, tree No. 4 showed no increase during the first 
week of June, 1913, and again during the second and third 
weeks of July of the same year. The largest tree. No. 9, 
showed no increase for three weeks in July, 1912. 
In 1913 the rainfall for January was abnormal, 22*5 inches, 
instead of the average 3 * 5 inches. Probably for that reason 
nine of the trees show a marked increase in girth during 
January and February, due to a continuance of the growing 
period into those months. The contrast between the growth 
during the first three months of 1913 and that of 1912 and 
1914 is most marked in the case of tree No. 12. Seven of the 
trees, however, fail to exhibit any response, so far as the 
girth increment is concerned, to the abnormal rainfall. 
In several cases it is evident that the curves for the two 
years are strikingly similar, and more or less independent 
of external conditions. In the case of tree No. 3 growth ceases 
in both years at the beginning of November, and does not 
begin again until March. Tree No. 6 presents a similar case. 
But in the case of tree No. 15 growth is continued each year 
into February. The first two of these trees have a non-growth 
period (not a leafless period) of four or five months, while the 
third has only one of four to seven weeks. These instances 
would appear to indicate that the character of the growth 
curve is, in some cases, peculiar to the individual tree, and is 
to some extent an expression of the “ individuality ” of the 
tree rather than a reflection of external conditions. 
The curves fOr the first three months of each year are 
shown on Plate XII., the two vertical lines indicating the 
time of the change in the colour of the leaf and of the full 
