DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 137 



of the root tip placeil a small piece of gummed paper. He thus incluced the 

 root to bend out of its coarse, often makitig a revolution or coil, or in one 

 case even tying itself into a knot. 



By sprouting corn in a similar manner, using hundreds of kernels of differ- 

 ent varieties and different ages, I found that the roots of corn would make 

 coils without any gummed paper on the tip — that some of these roots went off 

 without suppoi't for tiireo inches in a horizontal direction, some obliquely 

 upwards, and a few went straight up; some making curves, some one, two, or 

 even three coils. 



Of my improved dent corn of last year's growth I experimented on 700 or 

 more kernels as follows : Some were examined where they had sprouted in 

 the garden ; some in rich soil; some in poor soil ; some in sand in a damp 

 celhir. The primary and secondary roots, from one to six for each kernel, 

 about 3,000 roots were examined, and not a single instance was found of a 

 coil in the root. In a damp cellar facing the north, with the thermometer 

 about iSb'-'' to 70° F., I placed a box of poor damp sand, having a level surface. 

 Some kernels were i)laiited with the tips down, some with the tips up. In 

 many cases roots came out of the sand. 



There were more roots out of the ground than there were kernels planted. 

 In one lot of 181 kernels the tips were planted uppermost and covered one- 

 half inch deep and patted as with a hoe. When the tops of the young plants 

 were about four inches high they were examined. Of these, 89 sent the pri- 

 mary root out of the sand, 93 did not send it one. Many of those sent out re- 

 entered the sand. Some went out and in the sand several times. Above 

 ground the roots were somewhat red in color. The air was damp enough so 

 that root hairs thrived on roots above the sand as well as in the sand. 



When planted witli the tip of the kernel down, a small per cent sent the 

 primary root out of the sand. The primary roots kept ahead of the secondary 

 roots, even if they were on the surface of the sand, for twelve or fourteen 

 inches. In the cellar the roots apparently grew on the surface of the sand as 

 well as they did beneath the surface. 



Experiments with corn planted in the garden showed that primary and sec- 

 ondary roots often come out on the surface or to the surface if the surface 

 was damp. Here the tips of the roots perished. When the sand was dry on 

 the surface, tlie tips of roots were often found killed where they had attempted 

 to grow upwards. 



Lima beans were planted in the sand in the cellar and in the open garden. 

 Some were planted with the eye uppermost, some with the eye downward. 

 Those with the eye uppermost appeared a good deal confused, and many of 

 them never got the leaves above ground. Nine out of twenty-five in the gar- 

 den with the eye uppermost sent, in damp weather, the root end of the stem, 

 with all the roots, directly up out of the ground, where they perished. 



From these experiments it seems that Indian corn and Lima beans in ger- 

 mination do not, by any means, send all of their roots or radicles below the 

 surface of the ground. Roots and radicles often go in the direction of least 

 resistance. 



