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Exceptional Growth of a Wild Rose. By Stanley Coulter. 



While botanizing at Eagle Lake, Indiana, the past summer, my attention was 

 attracted by the peculiar growth of a wild rose. The bush arose from near the 

 center of an oak stump, which was some two or three feet in diameter. The 

 wood of the stump was extremely hard, and showed no signs of decay so far as 

 could be determined by a large knife. No cracks of any character, large or small, 

 were observable upon the summit of the stump or along its sides. The three 

 stems of the bush seemed at first glance to emerge, each from a specially prepared 

 hole, which it fitted with extreme accuracy, so closely indeed as to prevent move- 

 ment in any direction. My first impression was that it was a skillfully executed 

 trick. Further examination, however, showed that at the point of emergence 

 from the stump each stem showed a well marked intumescence, evidently the 

 result of arrested growth currents. These swellings resembling exactly those found 

 at the bases of branches in girdled trees. The bush itself was some two feet high, 

 and when first visited was in full bloom, bearing fourteen fiowers. It continued 

 flowering throughout the season, and later set seed well. 'I he foliage leaves, 

 while perhaps not so large as in bushes of corresponding size growing in the earth, 

 were in all other particulars perfectly normal. Evidently the plant was several 

 years old, and that it had had a vigorous growth was sutficiently evidenced by 

 the intumescences upon the stem, by its prolific flowering and abundant seed set- 

 ting. A careful examination of the stump at its base showed no crevices in which 

 seeds could find lodgment. It was very plain that in some way, on the surface of 

 this apparently solid oak stump, the bush had succeeded in finding the requisites 

 for a successful growth. 



In May, 1897, I again visited the stump and found the bush making a vigor- 

 ous growth. At this time, however, I observed some wood peckers at work on 

 the stumps of some newly sawed oaks. Examining the stumps I found many in 

 which holes had been drilled by this bird. I mention this as a possible explana- 

 tion of the way in which the seeds obtained lodgment. It does not, however, 

 account for such a vigorous growth under such apparently adverse circumstances. 

 The stump, so far as could be determined, was perfectly solid, with not even a 

 marginal rim of decay, although in one or two places the bark had fallen away. 

 How did the bush on the summit of a solid oak stump, four feet from the ground, 

 obtain sufficient moisture? Its stems were so securely fixed in the surrounding 

 wood that the most vigorous efforts failed to produce movement in any direction. 

 In the absence of decayed material, what was the source of food supply? I ex- 

 amined the plant many times, and have not been able to answer these questions 



