Mason. — Growth and Abscission in Sea Island Cotton. 459 
method adopted in order to determine the age of a flower-bud at shedding 
requires a word of explanation ; the boll presents no difficulties in this 
respect, for its age can be expressed as the number of days which elapsed 
between the open flower stage and the completion of abscission. In the 
case of the flower-bud, however, there is no readily recognizable stage to 
which its age can be referred. The convention adopted was to express its 
age at the time of shedding as the number of days which elapsed between 
the stage in its development which corresponded to the unfolding of the 
attendant foliage leaf and the completion of abscission ; the attendant leaf 
was judged to be unfolded as soon as the upper surface became clearly 
visible. The propriety of this procedure is admittedly open to criticism, for 
it assumes a definite relationship between the development of the bud and 
its attendant foliage leaf. It will be observed (Fig. 1) that the majority of 
flower-buds were apparently shed on the same day that the attendant 
foliage leaf unfolded. Two hundred and twenty buds were recorded as 
being shed on this day, whereas only six cases were observed in which the 
shedding occurred prior to this. There can be little doubt that the ex- 
planation of these observations lies in the fact that a large number of 
flower-buds were shed before the foliage leaf expanded, but escaped notice 
owing to their minute size. It may be remarked, however, that a careful 
inspection will generally reveal the presence of the flower-bud from three to 
five days preceding the unfolding of the leaf. 
It is clear (Fig. 1) that there is a very marked tendency for the flower- 
buds to be shed when very young, and that they become progressively less 
liable to suffer abscission as they grow more mature. It is of some interest 
to observe (Fig. 2) that this tendency becomes more pronounced as the 
development of the plant advances. 
K k 2 
