1901] Smith, — Aérial Runners in Trientalis americana. 217 
usual subterranean ones. Ordinary plants of Trientalis at this 
season show very long underground runners and well developed 
tubers (fig. 3, f) but these plants for some reason seem to have 
put their strength into these runners above ground and the growth 
beneath the moss is such as in fig. r, a. 
These odd plants grew at the base of an evergreen covered ledge, 
on the north side, on the outskirts of a sphagnum swamp and amid 
a growth favoring sedges, Nabulus, flag and creeping snowberry. 
They have continued to hold their own in that one spot, changing 
only from the mossy base of one tree to that of another. This place 
is just on the border line where the “old growth” type of vegetation 
meets the tangle of a sunny second-growth. 
I have been constantly on the watch for another locality where 
Trientalis could be found growing thus, and two or three years ago 
found a couple of similar plants on the north slope of an adjacent 
ledge where a tangle of raspberry and Aralia was covering the demo- 
lition of the old growth. I have never seen them any where else. 
Sometimes the graceful runners are swinging free, sometimes they 
have just penetrated the moss enough for the tuber to form (fig. 
1,j) Last summer (1900) after the extreme drought I was unable 
to find a specimen in the old place for a long time, but one plant 
finally appeared with a well developed tuber and the same charac- 
teristics as in previous years. 
Fig. 4 is a portion of an aérial runner where branch-runners 
appear to be starting. 
I was once attracted to what appeared to be a similar condition of 
growth in Trientalis but it proved to be another interesting phase of 
life. A couple of these plants were growing on the moss covering 
of an old fence log. When the white underground runners reached 
the perpendicular end of the log and lost the covering of moss, they 
assumed the rich color of the aérial runners and swung out free over 
the edge instead of following out the root instinct and seeking the 
dark again. Here again the pink spots on the white runners showed 
at intervals the effect of the light. 
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS. 
