66 Ninth report. 



One of the most remarkable points about this plant is its peculiar method 

 of securing a deep foothold in the soil. Ordinarily stems have a tendency 

 to grow in a direction away from the earth, hence we see so manj^ plants as- 

 suming an erect position. A considerable number of plants produce their 

 stems in a horizontal position, especially is this the case with such as produce 

 rhizomes, Init with the Erythronimn the stem actually grows downward. 

 The advantage of such a growth to the plant is, of course, quite apparent. 

 The flower gatherer in the spring may pluck the flowers of this plant but she 

 never gets the bulbs unless she have a spade along, consequently the bulb 

 remains; and though the plant is weakened considerably by the production 

 of a flower, yet the two large leaves have Ijeen so active that the old bulb is 

 still quite well stored Avith starch, and, though it does not send out other 

 leaves the same year, it will send out one, or perhaps more, one-leaved (Fig. D) 

 plant the following year. The crop of seed is destroyed but the vegetative 

 apparatus is in no way injured by the gathering of the flower. In fact if 

 only the flower were gathered, and the two leaves left, the vegetative power 

 might be actually increased. The ordinary gathering of flowers, then, does 

 not materially affect this beautiful spring plant, and it is one of the three 

 most attractive of the earliest spring plants — Hepatica, Claytonia and Ery- 

 thronium. 



From fertile seed, therefore, one plant results the first year, two or three 

 the second, six to nine the third, and eighteen to forty-five the fourth. After 

 this the plant may go on indefinitely, though confined to the one situation. 

 The peculiar growth of the stem is illustrated in figure F. Figure I is a back 

 view of figure F. For a very short distance, perhaps two or three mm., the 

 stem grows upward but soon makes a sharp turn (figures F and G), and then 

 grows downward, not vertically, but in a slanting direction. In the flower- 

 ing year this turn is not made, the plant stem acting as an ordinary erect 

 stem. 



The reserve material of this bulb is starch, and this reserve material is 

 rarely entirely used up by the plant, even when it would seem, in the natural 

 order of things, to be no longer rec[uired. 



The underground stems of this plant show a very peculiar condition in 

 cross section (figure 10). There is a very ]3eculiar crescent-shaped opening 

 which persists throughout the whole stem. The only interpretation I can 

 put upon it at present, is that it may be a rudimentary condition of a leaf- 

 sheath encircling the stem — the slit being the only place where the sheath 

 does not fuse entirely with the stem. A section through a bulb developing 

 on the end of one of these stems shows the slit to become a circular opening 

 (figure 11) through which it may be supposed the new young stem to pass. 

 Sections through older bulbs seem to confirm this view (figure 13). One 

 point seems, however, to be against this. Quite frequently the curve of the 

 slit is far from parallel with the circumference of the stem, presenting an ap- 

 j^earance as shown in figure 12. In these underground stems, the fibro- 

 vascular system is very rudimentary, so that it is imjjossible to determiue 

 whether the bundle system pertains to leaf or stem, consequently the internal 

 structures do not throw much light upon the question. A section through 

 a portion of the stem immediately back of the bulb presents the view of a 

 larger and longer slit (figure 14). 



It seems as though both leaf and stem grow together, the tissue being in- 

 distinguishable for practicahy the whole distance, and from the appearance 

 shown in figures 11 and 12, it might be considered that the stem actually 

 was one long node of what might be called embrN^onic tissue. The whole of 



