BAKER] DISTRIBUTION OF BLOOD ROOT 65 



When the capsule bursts, or rather, splits longitudinally the 

 seeds are flung some distance and some at least fall on the ground, 

 where after a period of rest they germinate. The drawing at the 

 left will show the appearance of young seedlings (Fig. 3.) There 

 first appear two small, eliptical plumule leaves and a fine radical. 

 For a time both the seed coats adhere. The outer coat is hard, 

 brittle and dark brown in color. The inner coat is fine, delicate 

 and papery, of a brick-red color. This development is shown in 

 Figure 3, A and B. In C, we see the appearance of the first-foliage 

 leaf which expands gradually as showTi in D, E and F. In F, we 

 see that at the junction between what was stem and radical a 

 thickening is formed from which the roots are now given off. This 

 marks the beginning of a rhizome. Under favorable conditions 

 the plant will continue to develop until it reaches the adult stage. 



I do not consider that the plant has become adult until it pro- 

 duces flowers, and, while I have had plants under observation only 

 six months, I am convinced that the plant does not produce 

 flowers before the fifth or sixth year. I came to this conclvision on 

 finding a large nimiber of plants which bore no flowers, and still had 

 a rhizome of considerable length and a leaf which was neither so 

 deeply lobed as those of plants which flower or so entire as the leaf 

 of seedlings, and also as evidenced by the number of scarrings on 

 the rhizome (Fig. i.) 



GROSS STRUCTURE 



I do not intend to take up in detail the microscopic anatomy of 

 the Blood Root, but I shall describe the gross structure which dis- 

 tinguishes it from other plants. It arises from a creeping rhizome 

 which varies in length from less than half a centimeter to single 

 rhizomes attaining ten centimeters length. The rhizome is thick 

 and chunky and contains an abundance of a blood-red latex, which 

 does not respond to the action of acids, alcohols or alkalis in any 

 definite degree. From this latex, the name of the plant is derived. 

 Ver\' young rhizomes contain a ver\' small amount of latex, and I 

 think, it may be said that latex is entirely absent in the rhizome of 

 seedlings. Along the length of the rhizome are circular scars which 

 surround it (Fig. i). These are the scars left by the bracts and 

 each circle hence marks a year's growth. The space between two 

 rings may var\' very considerably on the same rhizome. From the 



