AND SPECIES HYBRIDS WITHIN THE GENUS SACCHARUM 107 
of the panicle is still unstretched during the, ,boenting”’-stage ; the stret- 
ching begins almost simultaneously with the beginning of the , flag- 
period”. The panicle, which is completely enclosed by the highest leaf- 
sheath, pushes itselfs more and more upwards within this sheath and 
protudes a fortnight later from the top of it. The axis below the panicle 
continues to grow for some time, after this, so that the panicle is 
finally carried some distance above the flag. 
By measuring cane-stems, showing appearences of flowering in diffe- 
rent stages of development and by plotting these in a similar way as 
KuYPER!) did in the case of a three months old stem of the kind 247 B 
_the description given above may be illustrated. 
KUYPER writes of the nomenclature, used by him, as follows: 
„Leaf 1, is the leaf, in which the transition from blade to sheath, 
the joint, is still just visible. 
Exteriorly to this one we find the leaves 213, Vets. = older 
leaves therefore — interiorly leaf 0, 1, 2 etc., the yonger ones. I 
furthermore consider the internode on the top of which the leaf is 
inserted, as belonging to that leaf; internode 1 therefore carries 
feats. 
His representation of a three-month-old stem of 247 B he describes 
thus: 
„In order to get a clear representation, I imagine the stemtop to be 
halved. As the section, so obtained, is symmetrical, one half only is pic- 
tured. We find the outermost leafsheaths at the left side,the innermost- 
ones and the vegetation point of the stem at the right side. I choose 
the distances in such a way that an older internode always projects 0.5 
cM outside of the next younger one. While thus the really obtained mea- 
_ sures form the basis of the diagram in the longitudinal direction, the 
measures in lateral direction are exaggerated, so that the figure is stret- 
ched considerably in that direction. The projections cause the staircase 
shape of the diagram; at the angle of each step a leaf is inserted, which 
is represented by the thin vertical line erected in that point.” 
Fig. 3gives the diagram of a non-flowering, purely vegetative stemtop 
of the sugarcane Bandjermasin hitam. One sees that all blades of the 
leaves 1—6 are of approximately the same length, the same is true of 
1) J. KuyrPer, De groei van bladschijf, bladscheede en stengel van het suiker- 
riet. Arch. v. d. Suikerindustrie in Ned. Indië. 23ste jrg. 1915, p. 532 and 533. 
