ALDEN: LIFE HISTORY OF UVULARIA SESSILIFOLIA 441 
FIELD OBSERVATIONS 
Uvularia sessilifolia grows in rather close colonies, a fact corre- 
lated, of course, with the rhizome habit. The season’s elongation 
of the rhizome appears first about the middle of April as a tiny pro- 
tuberance at the base of the spring’s leafy shoot. This quickly 
pushes out, elongating so rapidly that by the first of May the 
length of the new growth is one half to one inch. The growth 
continues very rapidly so that by the first of June the increase is 
from two to four inches. This is apparently almost the limit of 
increase. The bud at the end is at this time but slightly larger 
in diameter than the rhizome itself. No attempt has been made 
in this study to get at the contents of the buds borne at the base 
of the flowering and the non-flowering branches. The tip end 
becomes curved upward slightly and is usually at depths varying 
from one to three inches below the surface of the ground. The 
size of the bud increases mostly during the latter part of August 
and the month of September. From October through to March 
the size is practically the same. With the renewal of growth in the 
spring, however, the portion just back of the bud again elongates 
rapidly and the buds increase greatly in diameter and length so 
that they appear above ground about the middle of April, those 
containing flowers being about one fourth of an inch in diameter. 
The flowers appear the first week of May. 
An interesting and probably very significant fact is noticed 
in connection with those plants having flowers. In all the plants 
observed the flowering plant is seen to branch once, the flower 
being borne at the first or second node of one of the branches. 
Conversely, no plant was found branched that did not blossom. 
This reminds one of similar occurrences in Erythronium and in 
P. odophyllum, where the flowering plant bears in every instance 
two leaves, the non-flowering ones a single leaf. 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MICROSPORANGIUM 
The development of the microsporangium is the usual one 
throughout, as will be seen in the stages here given. The first 
Stage which I obtained for the microsporangium is that seen August 
8, in which the inner whorl of stamens shows the differentiation 
of the hypodermal cell with beginnings of divisions into primary 
