24 0. S. U. Naturalist. [Vol. 1, No. 2 



Crown plants, while not true geophytes, are often closely related 

 to rhizome plants and may be regarded as transitional. They are 

 formed by the freezing back of the upright stem to the surface of 

 the ground, and the survival of the short stem beneath the surface 

 until the next Spring when it sends out ]>ranches from adventitious 

 buds. In this way several branches are sent up where there was one 

 before, and, as this crowds and injures the plant, these branches 

 usually move out some distance from the base of the parent plant 

 before coming to the surface. The connection with the main stem 

 is often severed, and thus many new plants are formed. All this 

 rarely takes place in the Spring but has been shifted back to late 

 Summer or Fall by the parent plant. Often a food supply is stored 

 up for the young plants by the parent. Helianthus tuberosus L. is a 

 good example. 



Vegetative propagation is brought to its highest development in 

 this class and they become our worst weeds. 



NOTES ECONOMIC AND TAXONOMIC ON THE SAW 

 BRIER, SMILAX GLAUCA. 



W. A. Kellerman. 



(Plate*.) 



In a recent trip through some of the southern counties of the 

 State my attention was arrested by the enormous quantity of Smilax 

 glauca — Glaucous-leaf Brier as given by Britton in the Illustrated 

 Flora — but generally and appropriately called in these I'egions where 

 so abundant, the Saw Brier. In the sandy soil of Hocking Countyi 

 thence southward to the Ohio River this plant may be seen growing 

 in field and pasture, by roadside and on hillside, and everywhere ex- 

 cept in wet soils and dense woods. It climbs over fences and high 

 bushes, displaying its bright foliage of lively green, more effective 

 by contrast with the abundant white bloom on the under side. In 

 the Autumn it presents showy wreaths of black but glaucous-coated 

 berries and the most gorgeous coloration of foliage. The leaves 

 remain for the most part late in Fall and Winter, and for brilliant 

 and delicate shades of rose and red are not surpassed by any plant 

 of our entire flora. The forbidding aspect of the long, wiry stems, 

 with their bristly covering of long, saw-like or needle-shaped 

 prickles, serves also to distinguish this plant even among the 

 attractive associates of its kingdom, 



A Bad Weed. — As a weed this species here stands at the head 

 of the list. Its horrid prickles make it one of the most disagreeable 

 plants with which to come in contact. It revels in the pastures and 

 clambers over the fences; it flourislios in the meadows and fields, 

 and no ordinary practice of crop-cultivation interferes with its 



