90 Keeble . — The Hanging Foliage of 
tained. Whether tropical rain is in general so inimical to 
young foliage as Stahl believes is a question which experience 
rather than experiment will finally decide. 
It may be mentioned that seedlings of Brownea grandiceps , 
whose tender leaves happened to be arranged horizontally, 
were exposed to heavy showers without sustaining any appa- 
rent injury, though to this may naturally, and perhaps truly, be 
objected that heavier rains would have destroyed them. 
Yet, within my very limited experience of the tropics, it 
is mainly the withered leaves, the decayed branches, which 
strew the ground after heavy tropical rain. 
Stahl’s observations 1 , however, have the merit of being 
positive, and record great destruction after rain : 4 thousands 
of flowers, old and young foliage, even whole branches, strew 
the ground after heavy torrents of rain.’ 
Even admitting, however, that the damage done to, or 
risk incurred by, young foliage in general, is as great as 
Stahl describes, it in no way impairs the conclusion above 
arrived at, that the hanging habit in these shade-loving trees 
is not a special provision against this damage or risk. 
As stated above, the ‘ shade-loving 5 habit of Brozvnea 
grandiceps was examined with some care. This was rendered 
easy by the fact that several trees, apparently not differing 
greatly in age, were growing in the gardens. Of these trees 
one grows in a particularly shaded place, hedged in by larger 
trees ; another grows exposed on all sides to the sun. 
Now Wiesner has described the changes in appearance which 
‘ shade-loving 5 shrubs undergo when grown in sunny places 2 . 
‘ When growing in the shade the shrub exposes its young 
leaves, in which chlorophyll is developing, to the light ; the 
young branches are long in comparison with those growing 
in direct light ; the young leaves do not, during development, 
place themselves in the shade of the older, and generally 
show no deviation from their normal position in relation 
to the stem. When such a shrub is grown in light, the 
Loc. cit., p. 149. 
2 Wiesner, loc. cit., p. 23. 
