GIANT BAMBOOS. 
221 
growing culm had been subjected to injury, as in the case 
of internodes 53-58 of d marked with an asterisk^) where the 
injury is followed by a series of abnormally short internodes; 
or to pressure, for example by the apex,becoming wedged 
between two older trunks. 
It seems impossible to say whether the smaller irregu¬ 
larities are to be ascribed to smaller strains, to variation in 
the meteorological condition such as will presently be shown 
to affect the rate of growth, or to purely internal causes. 
No relation was to be traced between the curve of growth 
and the length of internodes in the case of culms cut down 
after a series of observations upon their growth had been 
made. Tammes* has shown that in the case of several 
dicotyledons the removal of one or more leavesfrom the bud 
alters the period of length of the internodes. Removal of 
the leaf sheaths from the growing bud appeared too 
drastic a measure to apply to Dendrocalamus with any hope 
of success. But in this case as we have seen, there is other 
evidence that external causes exert an influence upon the 
relative lengths of the segments. 
In the case of the leaves a complete series of measure¬ 
ments could not be made owing to the fact that the lower 
leaves become stripped off and fall to the ground long 
before the growth of the upper part of the culm is com¬ 
pleted. The period of the length of the sheathing bases 
seems to agree with that of the internodes ; on the other 
hand the blades show quite a different periodicity of 
length. In these organs there is a gradual transition from 
the condition of mere spines attached to the leaf sheath by 
a triangular extension, a condition occurring at the base of 
the culm, to wide leafy blades higher up. Also, unlike the 
cases of dicotyledonous trees observed by Tammes, the 
longest blade occurs some way above the longest internode. 
* Die Periodicität morphologische Erscheinungen bei den Pflanzen. 
Verhandelingen der Koninklykke Akademie van Wetenschappen to 
Amsterdam, 1908. 
8(10)04 (12) 
