[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 23rd
November, 1927; received by Editor, 26th April, 1928; issued,
separately, 10th August, 1928.] It has long been known that
certain trees and shrubs bear flowers on their woody parts and
not, where flowers would be expected, on young branches and in
the axils of existing foliage leaves. Buds normally arise from
groups of meristem cells which have been left behind in the
axils of the leaves. Schimper (Plant Geography, English
Translation, 1903, p. 336) noted cauliflory (stem-flowering) and
associated it with thin-bark characters. He says it is caused by
dormant axillary buds becoming further developed after several
or many years. He points out that cauliflory is much commoner in
tropical plants than in plants growing in cold and temperate
regions. Tropical plants usually have thin bark whereas
temperate and cold-loving plants frequently have stringy bark,
and among them, cauliflory is rare. He suggests that trunk-
flowers are well protected from torrential r