32 botanical gazette. [ February 



observer, viz., a method by which the plant cut itself off 

 from normal nutrition. Having reached some suitable host 

 a twig of Forsythia viridissima in this case — it twines around 

 it like a tendril, by two or three coils, and in coiling contracts 

 so as to draw itself nearer the host. This contraction, it the 

 seedling is not too deeply rooted, or too slack between the 

 soil and the support, pulls the roots from the earth and leaves 

 the plant — a parasite by suicide — with roots at varying dis- 

 tances above the soil, i of an inch being perhaps the highest 

 I observed. If the plant is not uprooted in this manner or 

 by the lengthening of the internode of the host to which it is 

 attached, as sometimes happens, the lower part of the stem 

 dies, and the connection is thus severed with the absorbing 

 root, not, however, until the enlarged portion of the stem has 

 been drained of its nourishment or the plant has reached 

 some other supply. All the plants that germinated earliest, 

 of those we studied, hung themselves ; the later ones — those 

 washed deeper into the soil — died at base. Our gardener, 

 noticing the hanging ones, said, "Those are not plants; 

 they crawl up sticks like an inch-worm." These germi- 

 nating plants are white below, but yellowish-green at sum- 

 mit, suggesting that the dodder, even in its degeneracy, has 

 some chlorophyll and may elaborate food for a short time. 

 The amount of nourishment stored in the embryo hardly 

 seems sufficient to enable the seedling to produce such a 

 length of stem before reaching a host, as is done by some. 

 Other things, too, indicate ability to assimilate, such as the 

 greenness of buds and branches for some time after they 

 appear. This coloring matter is removed by alcohol. 



To illustrate the rapidity of growth after germination, I 

 give the statistics of a single plant, grown in my own room 

 under a bell-jar, in circumstances perhaps not the most fa- 

 vorable, as there was much variation in temperature, especi- 

 ally at night. The seeds weie collected out of doors on 

 some alder twigs, and sowed immediately, February 29. 

 The first plantlet appeared at the surface of the soil March 

 20, and twenty-four hours later, at 8 a. if #l March 21, was 

 one inch long, with tip doubled back and coiled once about 

 itself like a whip upon its stalk. All was white but the 

 coiled tip. At 10 a. m. it had more nearly uncoiled and had 

 gained one-fourth inch in length in the two hours ; at twelve 

 it was erect and slightly elongated ; at 6 p. m. its length was 

 one and one-half inches and its inclination toward the nearest 

 host. Measurement at 8 a. m., March 22, showed it to have 



