
NOTE ON RASPBERRY ROOTS. 205 
Note on Raspberry Roots. 
By G. F. Scorr Extior, M.A., B.Sc., F.L.S., F.R.G.S., and 
Mrs. FINGLAND. 

[Read 22nd February, 1898.] 
THERE are many instances recorded in botanical literature of 
stems or roots being buried by some peculiarity of growth. For 
example, Darwin, in Movements of Planits,} figures a seedling of 
Megarrhiza californica which is buried by the growth of the 
stalk of the cotyledon. The stem-bud is buried 4-6 inches in this 
way. The same occurs in the cases of Quercus virens and several 
species of Ipomea. This is also the case with the seed of the 
Date-palm (after Firtzsch*); the young plant is, by a similar 
growth, enabled to escape the long, dry season, which would be 
fatal to it, 
In the Autumn Crocus, Colchicum autumnale, Linn., the plant 
is also buried, but the corms gradually sink deeper into the earth 
through a different mechanism, Each corm-bud is produced at a 
slant downwards, so that after twenty years the plant is 15 
centimetres below the ground. It continues at this level, for the 
buds now develop horizontally. The Common Dandelion stem 
is buried in a different manner. Each cell of the root is at first 
very long, but it becomes afterwards very broad rather than long, 
and hence the root becomes stouter, wider, and of course is 
shortened, and drawn down into the soil. This mechanism is 
very common with plants which have a rosette of leaves close to 
the soil or rock. The result is, that the leaves are always 
developed in such a way that they form a flat cushion, underneath 
which the wind cannot penetrate. The leaves have, in fact, a 
1 Darwin, Movements of Plants. 
2 Firtzsch, Sitz d. Akad. d. Wiss. Z. U. Wien Abtheil., 1 Bd. XCIILI., 1886. 
8 Rimbach, Ber. d. deut. Bot. Ges., 1897, Bd. XV. 
* Willis, Flowering Plants and Ferns. 
