814 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVIII, No. 8 
weight is not too great to be supported. Abnormal supernumerary branches 
may also develop from axillary buds, though not to the same extent as in the 
cyrtosis disorder. 
Floral buds continue to be formed on most of the abnormal crazy-top branches 
of Pima cotton, but usually the buds are aborted at very early stages, as shown 
by a small scar at the side of the leaf-axil. In other cases the transformation to 
vegetative branches apparently is complete, when no bud-scars are found and 
the stipular rims do not encircle the joints as in fruiting branches. 
In Upland cotton greater changes occur in the branching habits, as in other 
features, as a result of crazy-top. In a field of Hartsville cotton near Casa 
Grande, Ariz., observed by Robert D. Martin in September, 1923, the fruiting 
branches were reduced to shapeless rudiments, and only a few of the affected 
plants retained any of their squares to appreciable size. Most of the squares 
were shed at very early stages of growth, and there were practically no flowers in 
the affected areas. (See PI. 10 to 15.) 
The later growth of the same plants, in October and November, was less 
abnormal. The fruiting branches were formed on most of the plants, though 
with very short, irregular, and abnormal joints. In November many of the 
plants were retaining their squares to larger sizes, though some of the plants 
failed to produce any squares or shed all of them in the minute rudimentary 
stages. Most of the squares were still being shed before flowering, though some 
plants were flowering and a few were holding some of their bolls. Thus there 
were many stages of sterility of the abnormal branches. 
In Pima cotton the recovery of normal habits of branching is more general. 
Under less extreme conditions in latter part of season a more normal formation of 
branches is resumed. The buds are held, and a profusion of blossoms may give 
the crazy-top areas an appearance of fertility, but too late to make good the 
losses that have occurred. Most of the plants begin to set bolls, though inferior in 
size and with fewer seeds than normal bolls. 
FASCIATION OR ADHESION OF BRANCHES 
Fasciation or adhesion of branches is of frequent occurrence in plants affected 
with crazy-top. Examples of twinning or dichotomous divisions of the branches 
are not uncommon. The lower joints of such branches are often adherent at the 
base, and sometimes for the entire length of the joint, or the joints of several 
branches may be united. Adhesions between the internodes of the fruiting 
branches and the pedicels of the bolls are also very frequent. 
Short axillary branches bearing a single boll on a long pedicel are often pro¬ 
duced in Pima cotton at the upper nodes of the main stalk. In the crazy-top 
plants the long pedicel of this axillary boll often is more or less adherent with 
the basal joint of the fruiting branch. In such cases the axillary boll is usually 
abortive and the supporting branch may be dead although the fruiting branch 
is alive. 
Many of the less abnormal branches that are formed at the top of the Pima 
plants late in the season are more or less fasciated or adherent, forming a rather 
dense cluster of leaves, flowers, and bolls, in contrast with the uniform open 
growth of the normal plants. Such clusters of small late bolls are found also 
in Upland cotton, but much less frequently than in Pima. 
Fasciations or adhesions of large abnormal branches with main stalks of the 
plants were observed in a Pima field near Phoenix, Ariz., and noted as an extreme 
form of this abnormal tendency. In some cases the branch was nearly equal 
to the upper part of the main stalk and retained a nearly upright position, thus 
giving the appearance of a dichotomous division of the stalk. That such abnormal 
