NOTE ON RASPBERPwY ROOTS. 205 



Note on Raspberry Roots. 



By G. F. Scott Elliot, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S., F.R.G.S., and 



Mrs. FiNGLAND. 



[Read 22iid February, 1898.] 



There are manv instances recorded in botanical literature of 

 stems or roots being buried by some peculiarity of growth. For 

 example, Darwin, in Movements of Plants, ■'■ figures a seedling of 

 Megarrhiza californica which is buried by the growth of the 

 stalk of the cotyledon. The stem-bud is buried 4-6 inches in this 

 way. The same occurs in the cases of Quercus virens and several 

 species of Ipomoea. This is also the case with the seed of the 

 Date-palm (after Firtzsch^); the young plant is, by a similar 

 growth, enabled to escape the long, dry season, which would be 

 fatal to it. 



In the Autumn Crocus, Colchicum autumnale, Linn., the plant 

 is also buried, but the corms gradually sink deeper into the earth 

 through a different mechanism. Each corm-bud is produced at a 

 slant downwards, so that after twenty years the plant is 15 

 centimetres below the 2;round. It continues at this level, for the 

 buds now develop horizontally.'^ The Common Dandelion stem 

 is buried in a different manner. Each cell of the root is at first 

 very long, but it becomes afterwards very broad rather than long, 

 and hence the root becomes stouter, wider, and of course is 

 shortened, and drawn down into the soil.* This mechanism is 

 very common with plants which have a rosette of leaves close to 

 the soil or rock. The result is, that the leaves are always 

 developed in such a way that they form a flat cushion, underneath 

 which the wind cannot penetrate. The leaves have, in fact, a 



^ Darwin, Movements of Plants. 



- Firtzsch, Sitz d. AJcad. d. }Yiss. Z. IT. Wien AbiheiL, 1 Bd. XCIII., 1886. 



8 Rimbach, Per. d. deut. Pot. Ges., 1897, Bd. XV. 



* Willis, Flowering Plants and Ferns. 



