50 RENNERT: SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS OF ARISAEMA 
the individual leaflets. In some, the side leaflets may be narrowly — 
lanceolate while others may approach an elliptical shape. The 
mid leaflet is generally broader than the lateral ones, but here too } 
a variety of forms may occur. At the end of the second season's i 
growth there is still a slight difference in the size of the corms of 
those plants of A. Dracontium which have borne a plumule the first 
year and those that have not. The root systems are, however, simi ! 
lar; six adventitious roots are developed in each. Except in the 
retarded development of its plumule, the development of the stem- 
bud of A. Dracontium agrees with that shown by A. sriphyllum. — 
The repression of the plumule does not seem to be correlated with q 
any variations in the stem-bud of the second season, since varla- — 
tions of leaf form occur as frequently in second-year plants which 4 
produced a functional plumule the first season. 
The principal differences between the seedlings of A. Dracom- — 
tium and A. triphyllum consist not only in the reduction and vari- 
ability of the roots, the variation and repression of the plumule of — 3 
the part of A. Dracontium, but also in the precocious enlargement 
of the corm. This difference arises as soon as germination starts; - 
in A. Dracontium the foodstuff of the endosperm is employed — 
directly to build up the hypocotyl at the expense of the devel: — 
opment of root and plumule. In A. triphyllum, however, B® 
soon as the hypocotyl breaks through the seed coats, the root} 
are sent out and attain some development at once, the plumule — 
then appears, and in normal cases it is only after this assimilatory : 
organ is well established and the seedling has separated from the 
seed that the hypocotyl begins to enlarge. In A. sriphyllum the — : 
endosperm furnishes the material which is necessary to bring the | 
root and plumule to an advanced stage of development, and the — 
food material for the hypocotyl is supplied by the assimilation of i 
the plumule. The early enlargement of the corm and the repres* 
sion of the plumule can scarcely be held to be due to a patholog- 4 
ical condition of the seed or to an unfavorable environment, as the — 1 
seeds planted were perfectly sound and the plumules in the ene 
bryos of those from the same lot which were examined showed 20 _ 
evidence of the attacks of parasites or any abnormality, while the — 
conditions under which the plants were grown corresponded to the 
normal environment of these plants as was well demonstrated by 
