Adventitious Budding and Branching in Cycas. 235 
ADVENTITIOUS BUDDING AND BRANCHING IN CYCAS, 
By M. C. Stopes, D.Sc., Ph.D. 
[7 Figures in the Text.] 
W HILE I was in Japan (1907-1909) I had the opportunity of 
examining numerous specimens of Cycas revoluta living in 
the open, some of which were very old. Many of these were much 
branched in an irregular way. A photograph of some examples of 
the kind is given by Miyoshi 1 in his series of habit photographs 
of Japanese plants, and there are some drawings in Wieland’s 2 
work on the fossil cycads; while mention is made of branching 
Cycads by Caldwell 3 , Pearson 4 and others. 
The brief notices of the subject in the literature, however, had 
not prepared me for the frequency or the extent of the branched 
plants, which were often much more like bushes than like “palms.” 
One specimen in particular was most noteworthy, and as it seems 
greatly to exceed, in the quantity of its branching, those hitherto 
mentioned. I give a small sketch of it (Fig. 8) which is traced 
from a photograph. 
Fig. 8. A sketch of the much branched Cycas at Yejiri, traced from a 
photograph. The plant bore twenty-six huge male cones the year this photo¬ 
graph was taken, and had also innumerable crowns of leaves without cones. 
The sketch does not show nearly all the detail of the plant, and 
gives but a poor idea of the enormous extent of the complex of 
branched trunks. The thick axes curve about in many directions 
and are propped up with strong supports, while the leaves of the 
1 Miyoshi, M. “ Atlas of Japanese Vegetation,” phot. 31. 
2 Wieland, G. R. “ American Fossil Cycads,” Carnegie Institute 
of Washington, 1906, 
3 Caldwell, O. W. ‘ ‘ Micro cycas calocoma,' ’ Bot. Gaz.44, Aug., 1907. 
4 Pearson, H. H. W. ‘‘Some South African Cycads: their 
Habitats, Habits and Associates.” Rep. Brit. Assoc., York, 
1906. 
