114 THE PLANT WORLD 



SUBTERRANEAN PLANTS OF EPIPHEGUS. 



Having need of Epiphegus Virginiana in late October, 1900, 1 sought 

 a piece of beech woods in Holbrook, Massachussets, where I found the 

 plant growing abundantly in rich, deep humus. It was past the flower- 

 ing time of this species in the main, but the warm season that year 

 was unusually protracted, and numerous short shoots were being pro- 

 duced from the swollen stem bases, upon which I found flowers and fruit 

 in all stages of development. The flowers borne by these late branches 

 are very small. They are all cleistogamous, and invariably give rise to 

 capsules filled with fertile seed. 



Occasionally these secondary shoots were observed to be flowering 

 somewhat below the surface of the ground. This fact led to further ex- 

 ploration, and on turning up the mold I found many shoots that for 

 one reason or another had never escaped from the soil. They were as 

 productive of fruit and seed as the aerial branches. Finally I brought 

 to light a number of whole plants that had come to maturity below the 

 surface. They were buried one or two inches deep, and were dwarf 

 specimens an inch or less in height. They bore several fruits con- 

 taining good seed. 



Whether this variation is simply physiological and due to tardy 

 germination or lack of nourishment, as seems probable, or is constitu- 

 tional and inheritable, the case offers an interesting example of a phan- 

 erogam leading its existence, and indeed completing its entire cycle of 



life, underground. 



E. G. Leavitt, in The Botanical Gazette. 



