GROWTH AND MORPHOGENESIS IN THE CANADIAN FOREST SPECIES: II. SPECIFIC INCREMENTS AND THEIR RELATION TO THE QUANTITY AND ACTIVITY OF GROWTH IN PINUS RESINOSA AIT.

Abstract

Two measures are needed to describe numerically the activity of the internodal cambium in terms of annual increment. These are "specific wood volume increment", a measure of additive growth and "specific increment of cambial area", a measure of multiplicative growth. The mean area of the internodal cambium is the basis of reference for both since it is the measure of that which is active in growth. The former measure of specific growth is numerically equal to ring width and the manner of its factorial control has already been considered. Data for the latter are new.The geometry of the apical meristem and its products is too complex for the ready computation of specific terminal growth, but it can be shown empirically that internode length is a valid measure of apical activity. Analysis of internodal wood volume growth into its three linear components leads to the conclusion that the determinants in control of wood growth act mainly through their effect upon apical activity and upon specific increment of cambial area.