1916] Goodspeed-Brandt : Notes on Trillium 27 



structures representing sepals were often normally matured but 

 within them a ''confused mass of cells" occurred. A much larger 

 collection was made in the same region on April 10 of the same 

 year and sixty plants were found to contain "abortive" flower buds, 

 concerning which she says: "Usually the rudiments of a perianth 

 could be distingiiished either as a white speck or as very evident 

 floral leaves sometimes 2 to 3 mm. in length, but withered and 

 abortive." Miss Smith suggests that "truly sterile" plants might 

 have been present, but she found none without at least rudimentary 

 floral structures. 



The drawings shown in plates 5 and 6 represent median longi- 

 tudinal sections through the center of the stem apex which in the 

 apparently flowerless shoots is seen as a cuplike depression, on the 

 rim of which the almost completely sessile leaves are borne. The 

 drawings were made from material sectioned in paraffin ; while 

 undeveloped flowers of the size shown in plate 6 might be distin- 

 guished by the naked eye as minute, white, withered structures in 

 the center of the cuplike depression, those shown in plate 5 would 

 escape notice without magnification. The complete range of variation 

 in size and differentiation of parts given in table 1 is not paralleled 

 in the drawings, wherein only smaller and more rudimentary floral 

 structures are represented. It is important to note in table 1 that 

 a complete series can be obtained, from undeveloped flowers consist- 

 ing of such minute primordia as these under numbers 17 to 25 to 

 those which are really perfectly matured but functionless buds illus- 

 trated under numbers 1 to 3. As mentioned above, we have in this 

 table used the terms petals, sepals, etc., simply for convenience of 

 description in giving the measurements of the structures found. 

 Thus in the case of the smaller group, from numbers 13 to 25, the 

 separation into circles of such structures as are shown in the drawings 

 in plate 5 is a rather arbitrary matter. It must be said, however, 

 that, in dissecting under magnification even these minute organs, one 

 is impressed with the fact that the structures present are arranged in 

 some more or less definite order and inserted at various points upon 

 the reduced receptacle. Certainly in the case of the group of 

 intermediate size, numbers 7 to 12, there is cause for assigning groups 

 of structures to given circles, while in the largest group, numbers 

 1 to 6. the characteristic floral whorls are perfectly represented. It 

 might also be noted that measurements are at hand which together 

 would form a still more continuous series in which the size of the 



