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A Melaleuca with very small decussate leaves, a tree about twenty-five feet high, was growing on the scrubby ridges. Flooded-gums of most majestic size, and Casuarinas, grew along the river; in which there were many large reedy water-holes.
In a vast majority of cases 13 leaves are found on 5 circuits, and as we have only to deal with this proportion in the teasels we will not consider others. In the teasels this screw-arrangement has disappeared, and has been replaced by a decussate grouping. The leaves are combined into pairs, each pair occupying the opposite sides of one node.
Twisted stems are selected as a first example. This monstrosity, called biastrepsis, consists of strongly marked torsions as are seen in many species with decussate leaves, though as a rule it is very rare. Both of these I have cultivated during upwards of fifteen years, but with contradictory results.
Some specimens have decussate stems, others bear all their leaves in whorls of three, but in respect to the hereditary tendency of the twisting character this difference does not seem to be of any importance. In this way I got three lots of seeds and sowed enough of them to have three groups of plants each containing about 150-200 well developed stems.
The twisted parents gave as many as 41% twisted children, but the decussate atavists gave even somewhat more, viz., 44%, while the ternate specimens gave 37%. Obviously the divergences between these figures are too slight to be dwelt upon, but the fact that the atavists are as true or nearly as true inheritors of the twisted race as the best selected individuals is clearly proved by this experience.
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