2 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. [5^° 
The largest growth in 24 hours, i£ inches, took place in the 4th 
decade, Aug. ioth-nth, mean temp. 78°; while on Aug. 18th, 
with mean temp. 84°, the growth is marked only i inch, and Aug. 
23rd and 25th, mean temp. 85°, it amounted to 1 inch and f inch 
respectively. 
The quantity of rain had apparently little or no immediate ef¬ 
fect, as it was pretty evenly distributed through the whole period. 
The full-grown scape measured 54 inches to the base of the 
panicle, which, when, fully developed, was itself 21 inches long 
and a little wider, and consisted of 19 branches, the lowest ones 
the.longest, somewhat S-shaped, and horizontal, with the end 
turned up. 
About newyears the lower branches of the panicle, which thus 
far had formed a pointed club covered by the large bracts, began 
to straighten out, while the upper ones with their bracts yet formed 
a large cone. The first flowers opened on the lowest branch on 
Feb. 5th ; the innermost ones of each cluster developed first, the 
others flowering in quick succession, so that all the flowers of 
a bunch were in bloom within about three days. Two or three 
weeks later the plant may be said to have been in fullest bloom, 
though the lower clusters were passed and the uppermost not yet 
open. These last flowered about March i8-2oth, so that the flow¬ 
ering period (at this season and in a greenhouse) occupied from 
six to seven weeks. 
Abundant opportunity was afforded to study the gradual devel¬ 
opment of the flowers (see also p. 298). I have, on Plate IV., 
represented these various phases by a series of figures carefully 
drawn from nature. 
The bud bursts in the morning or in the middle of the day 
(Fig. 4); the bent filaments begin to straighten out, the still 
closed anthers commence to protrude, the top of the style has 
not yet reached the tip of the perigonial lobes. Only thus far 
the perigon and its lobes.are fresh, exhibiting their fullest devel¬ 
opment. 
In the evening of the same day the filaments are straightened 
out above the perigon, the anthers begin to open at the upper and 
lower ends, as Fig. 6 shows, and then all along their commis¬ 
sures; the. style has not yet reached the length of the filaments, 
but the perigonial lobes are already withering at tip. 
2 3 
