Adventitious Budding and Branching in Cycas. 237 
As even the Tokio botanists to whom I mentioned my preli¬ 
minary observations did not seem to have given the buds special 
attention, it appeared worth while to record the following facts 
about them. 
Tiie “ buds ” arise, apparently at any time and quite irregularly 
on the leaf-bases all over the older plants of Cycas vevoluta. I 
counted back from the crown 228 whorls, and at this level found 
many of the small and flourishing buds growing on the leaf-bases all 
round the trunk. 
Behind this region the whorls became indistinct and it was 
difficult to count accurately, but there must have been at least 
another 100 whorls, and even there the leaf-bases were fresh and 
bore “ buds.” Externally the old leaf-bases of Cycas appear to have 
entirely dried up and hardened, and they form, as is often described, 
a corrugated armour round the stem. As they were still capable of 
budding I cut into them and carefully examined their condition. 
The external blackened part is very hard and protected by several 
layers of cork ; between it and the inner still fresh part of the leaf- 
base, are five or six areas cut off by successive active zones of cork. 
This is seen in Fig, 10. 
Fig. 10. Section through an old leaf-base showing successive zones of 
cork, c‘, c 2 , etc., and the persistent base, /, packed with starch. 
The zones between the cork layers contain much tannin, but 
the persistent base behind is fleshy and quite juicy and fresh. The 
cells in the latter region are packed with starch grains, and the 
vascular bundles and mucilage canals are all quite normal. It is 
from this fresh, basal portion that the “ buds ” spring. 
The manner of their growth and the course of the vascular 
system in these buds is very various, but all the many I examined 
seemed (it was in some cases difficult to determine this absolutely) 
to arise from the leaf-base itself and not from the axis, or to be in any 
way connected with the axis at first. In some cases this is perfectly 
evident, as in Fig. 9 (i), where the “ bud ” lies on the surface of the 
leaf-base some distance from the axis. Without injuring the trees 
