26 
Newcombe, Sensitive Life of Asparagus plumosus. 
shoots thus used. If these shoots were yertical when set out in 
the light, this direction was held for from 1 to 2 days, when the 
deflection to the horizontal position began. If the Position of the 
shoots was 45° or more below the yertical when exposure to light 
began, the shoots invariably rose, reducing this angld by 10° to 
40° during the first day and a half. The following is a represen- 
tative instance of behayior: 
18) Shoot grown in opaque coyer to hight of 66 cm with 
declination of 30° when set out under open sky at 7:30 A. M., 
and shaded from direct sunlight. Direction maintained for 36 hours, 
then tip rose 15° — next morning declined to 30°, but later in 
day rose againtolö 0 — 4 th day morning declined to 30°, afternoon 
rose to 15° below yertical — 5th day declined to 35 0 and unfolded 
branches — 6th day declined to 65° — 7th day declined to the 
horizontal position and ceased nutation. 
VII. Behavior of Plants on the Klinostat. 
Inasmuch as the development of diageotropism in normal 
growth is closely associated with the cessation of elongation of the 
shoot, it might be thot that revolution on the klinostat might cause 
a greater than normal elongation. An additional reason for imagining 
that this might be so is the result of growing the plant in the 
dark — the production of a greater number of internodes and the 
abscence of a final diageotropic position. When the test is made, 
however, it is found that revolution of the plant in tbe light with 
the axis of the klinostat horizontal causes no more than normal 
elongation. The shoot ceases growth at the usual size. Altogether 
10 plants have been revolved on the klinostat to test this question, 
6 with the axes of the shoots at right angles with the horizontal 
axis of the klinostat, and 4 with the axes of the shoots parallel 
with the horizontal axis of the klinostat. In the case of one of 
these plants, the revolution began before the tip of the shoot had 
come more than a millimeter above ground; the other shoots were 
from 1 to 6 cm high when revolution began. No unusual elongation 
was seen in any of them. 
When revolution of these plants with the axis of the klinostat 
horizontal is conditioned so as to equalize light, the plant develops 
with all Orders of branches related to the main axis as in Asparagus 
officinale. The aspect of the plant is very different from the usual. 
Instead of flattened frond, there is forrned a central axis with 
branches growing out from it in several planes, these branches of 
the first Order bearing their branches also in various planes, and 
finally the needles in brushes filling a hemisphere instead of flattened 
in a circle like the spokes of a wheel. Except for the needles, 
all of the branches of these plants grown on the klinostat make 
angles with the axis from which they arise of about 80° above 
and 100° below. 
It is interesting to learn that as these plants grow to ma- 
turity on the klinostat, both main and lateral axes retain their 
