a laa a ee 
21 
looked, but on following the root from the Aphyllon a dead plant 
would be found, generally small and nearly or quite buried in the 
sand. Some withered and blackened leaves showed that it had 
started in the spring and grown for a while, but had evidently 
died of exhaustion, giving its life to sustain the parasite. This 
also would be dead under such conditions, having perhaps per- 
fected its seed, though those on stronger hosts are perennial, the 
stems only dying after fruiting, the haustorium and parts adja- 
cent being provided with buds for a new growth. 
An Economic Mulberry. 
The August issue of the BULLETIN contains an interesting 
note and figure of a Linden which had taken root in the decom- 
posed wood of its own trunk, an occurrence by no means com- 
monly observed and, as it seems, but rarely recorded. Not long 
ago, however, there appeared in one of our papers, as copied 
from an English paper, an account of an English Oak which had 
“sustained itself for years by a mass of roots grown into its own 
trunk!” 
To the phenomenon described in the BULLETIN by Mr. Sar- 
gent for the Linden may be added a similar one lately observed — 
in the trunk of a small White Mulberry, standing in the grounds 
of the Department of Agriculture. The conditions are essentially 
the same as those noted in the case of the Linden, except that 
the Mulberry is perhaps more seriously injured, a considerable 
Portion of its trunk being destroyed by decay. The adventitious 
roots observed spring from the free border of a longitudinal crack 
where the trunk forks, the edges of the wound having been 
“healed” for some time, while the subsequent decomposition of 
the exposed inner layers of wood formed a quantity of mould, 
which, lying in contact with the healed borders, seems to have 
induced the growth of adventitious roots from one side into the 
decayed mass. 
In considering the precise conditions under which this appar- 
ently peculiar growth is produced, as well as the fact that, as far 
as observed, the adventitious roots proceed only from vigorous, 
newly-formed wood, perhaps these cases may not be more phe- 
nomenal than the production of roots from a cutting, or from a 
