28 
Newcombe, Sensitive Life of Asparagus plumosus. 
B. Behavior of Seedlings. 
The fact that the normal mature aerial shoots of the seedlings 
differ in their appearance front those growing from rhizomes has 
already been pointed out. This difference consists in the Position 
of needles and branches in the 2 kinds of shoots, the needles and 
all other branches on the shoots from rhizomes being flattened 
into a single horizontal plane, while the needles on seedling shoots 
spread out in many directions, and the branches bearing the needles 
are not all brot into a horizontal plane. 
Not less striking than the difference noted above, is the 
difference between the behavior of seedlings and other shoots when 
grown in the dark. As already recorded, the shoots from rhizomes, 
if caused to form in the dark produce no branches and do not 
develop a definitive diageotropism, tho they do make transitory 
plagiogeotropic curves. The shoots of seedlings raised in the dark 
produce both branches and diageotropic apices. 
Several small pots were planted with Asparagus seeds in the 
month of July. The shoots began appearing above ground after 
26 days. As these shoots grew in hight they showed but little 
nutation tili they were 8 to 10 cm high, about 10 days after 
appeaiing above ground. There were 14 of these seedlings growing 
in the dark They all began declining but 5° to 10° the first day 
that declination began, the angle being 3 to 6 mm from the apex. 
For 2 or 3 days the tips nutated up and down, changing the plane 
of curvat.ure, but not showing circumnutation. Soon the angle of 
curvature was seen to be 15 to 20 mm back from the tip while 
the declination went to 15° to 30°. After the first appearance of 
such a declination as this, the most of the shoots did not erect 
again and did not change the plane of curvature. The final planes 
of curvature were in about as many directions as there were shoots. 
Ten days to 2 weeks after the shoots began to decline at the tips, 
they had attained their final position. Six of the 14 had declined 
90°, six were 60° to 80° below the vertical, one was 45°, and 
the other 30° from the vertical. The length of the declined Por¬ 
tion varied from 7.5 cm -to 2 cm. 
These plagiotropic shoots bore branches also; only one of the 
14 was without branches. The branches numbered from 2 to 6 on 
a shoot and varied in length from 3 mm to 45 mm. Fach node 
of the plagiotropic part of the main axis, and each node of an 
unfolded branch bore needles; the apices of main and lateral axes 
also showed the needles diverging. The number of needles in a 
cluster was smaller than on a normal shoot, and the size of the 
needles was about one-half the normal. The smaller number in a 
cluster is probably due to the failure of many of the needles to 
elongate, as many short ones could be seen with a lens. The 
needles showed no control by gravitation in the positions they took, 
but the branches of lower order in general took the horizontal 
Position; yet, a few branches on these seedlings, as already stated 
for seedlings grown in the light, took positions between the vertical 
and horizontal. 
