Newcombe, Sensitive Life of Asparagus plumosus. 
21 
declined 30° — after 12 hrs. vertical — after 12 hrs. declined 
15° — after 15 hrs. vertical, and so continued for 2 days when 
experiment ended. Total hight 34 cm. Period of Observation 
36 days. 
2) Shoot required 12 days to grow from 2 cm below snrface 
of earth to 15 cm above earth, temperature averaging about 22°. 
All this time the shoot was erect, then 1.5 cm of apex bent 15° 
from vertical — thus for 27 hrs., then vertical — after 3 hrs. 45 min. 
declined 15° — after 55 min. vertical — after 10 hrs. 35 min. 
declined 20°; from this time tili the end of the experiment 35 days 
after the beginning, total higlit being 66 cm, the tip nutated up 
and down touching all points of the compass in irregulär move- 
ments, never declining below 40° from the vertical, usually de- 
clining but 15° to 20°, never pausing more than 24 hrs. in one 
Position, and erecting itself to the vertical position 11 times. For 
a period of 14 days, observations were made from 3 to 11 times 
daily. 
3) Shoot 14 cm tall in cone when nutation began, 6 mm of 
tip declining 10° — after 1 day vertical — after 1 day declined 
10° — after 1 day vertical — after 1 day declined 20° — next 
day declined to 30° — next day declined to 45° — after 1 hr. 
vertical — after 7 hrs. declined 15° — after 2 days declined to 
30° — after 2 days declined to60°, and so continued for 2 weeks 
when experiment ended. Total hight of shoot 33 cm. Period of 
Observation 35 days. 
The foregoing three examples give the behavior of shoots 
thru a period within which these shoots in normal conditions 
would have developed the usual diageotropic frond. The following 
example is illustrative of the later behavior of 5 shoots which 
were followed to hights of from 109 cm as the lowest to 193 cm 
as the highest. All of these shoots were convered with the paper 
cones, or kept in a dark-room from the bud condition under the 
soil to the end of the experiment. Observations on number (4) 
were made every day, and for periods of several days at a time 
were made from 2 to 6 times a day. It is not to be supposed 
that all positions of these nutating stems were seen; but the ob¬ 
servations were sufficiently frequent to detect any declination lasting 
24 hours. Moreover a pause of 24 hours or more in one position, 
divergent by 20° or more from the vertical, must invariably be 
marked permanently in the stem by a considerable angle with the 
vertical. A summary of observations on one shoot follows: 
4) For 22 days after coming above soil, plant, always in 
dark, showed no noticeable Variation of tip from vertical, hight 
then 39 cm — then declined 30° for less than 9 hrs. — then 
vertical for 45 hrs. — then declined 25 0 for 20 hrs. — then vertical 
for 24 hrs. — then declined 30° for 21 hrs. — then vertical for 
5 hrs. — then declined 40° for 19 hrs. — then rose to 20° from 
vertical for 12 hrs. — then declined to 40° and for 6 days nutated 
up and down and laterally with declinations between 20° and 70° 
— then vertical for 24 hrs. — then declined to 45 0 for 9 days — 
