MAY 261900 



STUDIES ON SUBTERRANEAN ORGANS. II. SOME 

 DICOTYLEDONOUS HERBACEOUS PLANTS OF 

 MANHATTAN, KANSAS.* 



A. S. Hitchcock. 



In the present article are discussed the underground parts 

 of a number of perennial dicotyledonous, herbaceous, and 

 several shrubby plants of the vicinity of Manhattan. 



Some have already been mentioned, and figured in Bulletiu 

 76 of the Experiment Station. 



The plants are divided as in Article I,f into those forming- 

 crowns, those forming rhizomes or stolons, and those propa- 

 gating by adventitious buds upon creeping roots. 



Crown Formers. I have designated as a crown the per- 

 sistent base of vegetative stems. The new stems hence arise 

 as lateral shoots upon the base of a stem, the upper part of 

 which died to the ground, or even below the surface. I have 

 designated as a caudex a vertical rhizome. In this case the 

 main axis is not a vegetative shoot but produces a terminal 

 bud which continues the growth. A caudex advances slowly 

 and is usually pulled down into the ground by contraction of 

 the lateral roots about as fast as it grows upward, hence does 

 not extend above the surface. The crown may be formed upon 

 a fleshy or thickened root, in which case the chief portion of 

 the underground part is root, or it may be supported by 

 fibrous or small woody roots in which case the chief portion 

 of the underground part is stem. In the first series the root 

 may be very large as in Oxybaphus nyctagiaeus, Phytolacca 

 decandra, and Cucurbita foelidissima. In more numerous 

 cases the root is smaller but distinctly fleshy, as Callirrhoe 

 involucrata, and Asclepiodora viridis. In Psoralea esculenta 



* Presented in abstract, with illustrative specimens, to The Academy of 

 Science of St. Louis, March 5, 1900. 

 t Trans. Acad Sci. of St. Louis. 9: 1. 



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