1916] Brandt: Notes on Trillium 43 



Purely mentioned above. My determination of the age of a given 

 rootstock is made by counting the sears left by the decayed bases of 

 aerial shoots and noting the slight annual constructions which usually 

 can be seen on the surface of the rootstock. 



Roots grow out from the lower side of a horizontal rootstock, but 

 when the rootstock stands erect the roots grow out equallj' from all 

 sides (cf. Rimbach, loc. cit.). Rinibach states that T. ovatuni produces 

 two or three roots per year, and that they live eight or ten years, so 

 that the plant may have as many as twenty roots, but he probably 

 overestimates the age of the roots just as he does that of the rootstock. 

 T. sessile var. giganteum sends out three to five or more roots from 

 near the base of the terminal bud or "crown" at about the time the 

 young shoots appear above ground. These attain a length of 15 to 

 20 cm. or more the first year. During the second year they increase 

 their length still more and send out fairly numerous branches of the 

 first order. They apparently live three or four years, or even longer, 

 but probably not so long as the portion of the rootstock which bears 

 them. When the roots have attained a considerable length, they begin 

 to contract, the surface of the roots becoming noticeably wrinkled as 

 they do so. This contraction draws the rootstock down into the ground. 

 Since only the young roots contract, the pull is exerted only at the 

 growing end of the rootstock. If the ground is hard this will cause 

 the young rootstock, upright in the young seedling stage, to become 

 inclined from the perpendicular. As the rootstock becomes inclined it 

 develops a tendency to send out roots only from the lower side, thereby 

 eventually becoming horizontal or inverted. Evidence of this gradual 

 change of position of the rootstock is furnished by the slight arching 

 so common in that of T. ovatum. On the other hand, the rootstock 

 tends of itself to assume an upright position, so that in loose soil up- 

 right rootstocks may be found. When the rootstock is erect, roots, 

 as noted above, grow out equally from all sides, and thus enable it to 

 maintain an upright position. 



As a result of this tendency of the rootstock to grow erect and to 

 send out roots more nearly in all directions the more nearly erect it 

 becomes, we find most of the rootstocks of T. sessile var. giganteum 

 and the stronger ones of T. ovatum growing erect or curving upwards. 

 Rimbach states that the roots of T. ovatum, which attain a total length 

 of 20 to 30 cm., reduce their length about 1 cm., becoming wrinkled 

 for a distance of 3 or •! cm. in doing so. The roots of T. sessile var. 

 giganteum show this same surface wrinkling. Photographs of root- 



