and Multiplication in Erythronium 307 



deeper into the soil at the end of a short vertical runner, but 

 may develop without such elongation. Within this bulb the 

 plumule is formed (Figs. 10, 11) and with its formation the 

 first step in the vegetative life of the plant is completed. The sec- 

 ond step appears the next spring with the first leaf — the plumule 

 leaf, and ends when the first crop of runner bulbs is formed in 

 May.* From the plumule-bulb only one or two runners are gen- 

 erally produced, but from the larger bulbs three is the more com- 

 mon number (Fig. 12), thus increasing three-fold the number of 

 immature bulbs at each successive crop of runners. 



A flowering bulb cannot be produced from seed in less than 

 four years. In the first year the parent bulb would bloom, and 

 ripen its crop of seeds, from six or seven to twenty or more. In 

 the spring of the second year some of these seeds would germi- 

 nate and form plumule-bulbs. From each of the plumule-bulbs 

 there would appear in the third year a single leaf, and the first 

 runners would be produced at the distant ends of which runner- 

 bulbs would be formed. Some one of these runner-bulbs might 

 be formed under the conditions necessary to produce a flowering 



bulb, but this is very unlikely ; so that one or more years would 

 elapse before a blossom would be formed, thus making a cycle of 

 five or more years. This cycle is shown at Fig. 14, with the 

 forms assumed at each step. At Fig. 26 the multiplication which 

 takes place during the same cycle is shown diagrammatically : one 

 seed ; one seedling and plumule-bulb ; one runner bulb ; three run- 

 ners with their bulbs ; and from each of these three there are pro- 

 duced three more the fifth year, nine in all. Some of the nine 

 will probably produce a flower ; those which do not will continue 

 to produce runners in most cases, although a bulb is occasionally 

 found which is apparently recuperating, for the depth is that of the 

 mature bulbs, but only one leaf is produced, and no runners are 

 present. 



The following table illustrates the number of plants of different 

 ages during each of five years, supposing that five seeds from each 

 fruit ripen and survive the cycle. Each step is one line lower 



*No bulbs of plumule size were found this spring (1900) with runners. The stiff 

 clay soil in which most of them were found may have some influence upon the absence 

 of runners. 



