ORCHIDACEiE 



JNIarch 1920. From my reading of Lownes's article, however, I 

 was unable to decide whether or not his observations agreed with 

 mine; his drawings, diagrammatic though they were, failed to 

 bring out clearly just what happens in the sequence of vege- 

 tative multiplication. In the main, however, I believe the con- 

 clusions at which he arrived are correct. 



When a colony of this species is dissected, a process that de- 

 mands much care and extraordinary patience, as the stems and 

 stolons are exasperatingly fragile and brittle, it is found that the 

 flowering stem arises from the broad end of an obconical or egg- 

 shaped tuber, and that from the lower part of the flowering stem, 

 above the tuber, stolons originate and grow out in a more or less 

 horizontal direction, bearing at their end miniature replicas of 

 the mature tuber. (Plates 102 and 103.) The exact significance 

 of these miniature tubers is not at once apparent and perplex- 

 ity may arise as to their function. If the mature tuber illus- 

 trated (cf. Plate 102) is examined, a minute process will be ob- 

 served at the basal end. This process is to be interpreted as the 

 withered remains of a stolon and indicates the original point of 

 attachment of the tuber to the stolon of the mother plant. This 

 process is usually very distinct in fresh material, and yet might 

 be passed over as of no consequence in a study of the life history 

 of the species. If, now, we begin our study of development with 

 a minute tuber that has been detached from a stolon, perhaps 

 by frost or some other mechanical means, we are able to observe 

 that it is at the distal end of this tuber that development takes 

 place, and that the tissues in the apical region give rise first to 

 a new stolon bearing a miniature tuber and then to a bud from 

 which develops the new stem. This method of growth is clearly 

 shown in the illustration (Plate 103) and suggests what may 



be the early stages of development from a protocorm. The young 



[10] 



