44 THE AMERICAN BOTAXIST. 



under dead leaves and leaf mould. There is a little under- 

 growth of elder, sassafras, hydrangea, dogwood and a 

 few other shrubs or small trees, and later in the year there 

 is a luxuriant growth of tall summer and autumn bloom- 

 ing herbs. At this time of year the trees are bare and 

 there is no herbaceous vegetation except such vernal 

 plants as blood-root and dutchman's breeches, or the per- 

 sistent leaves of hepatica and sword-fern. Only hepaticas 

 and trilliums were in bloom during our visit. The dead 

 logs are covered with mosses and shelf-fungi, and Cono- 

 cephnhis grows on an occasional rock out-crop. 



The trilliums were more adundant than I had ever be- 

 fore seen them. They grew scattered along the hillside for 

 a mile or more, at the base of trees, under fallen brush, or 

 by prostrate logs, but alwaj-s on the steepest part of the 

 hillside. Hepaticas were always growing with them, but 

 they were less choice in their surroundings, for they would 

 grow also on the level terraces of the hill, and even on the 

 sunny south sides, while the trilliums were most abundant 

 on the northern and eastern slopes, and never extended 

 around to the south side of the hill. They grow singly or 

 in groups, but are never truly gregarious. Each stem 

 arises from a short thick rootstock about three-fourths of 

 an inch long, lying an inch or two under the surface. The 

 stems are short and reach little above the leaf mould, the 

 leaves sometimes even resting flat upon it. The single 

 pure white flower is an inch across, and quite conspicuous 

 against its background of the three green leaves. 



The trillium apparently seldom or never sets seed in 

 this vicinity. In my experience with it I have never seen a 

 fruit produced naturally, although I have several times 

 produced them b^^ artificial pollination. Other species of 

 trillium are either visited by pollen-eating insects or are 

 self-pollinated, but there are no recorded observations on 

 the pollination of Trillium nivale. Without seed produc- 

 tion a very few botany classes could destroy all the plants 

 in their neighborhood, by digging up the entire plant and 

 thus preventing the further growth of the rootstock. The 



