. days of July. Near the middle of the month the inflorescence 
Jast days of July the inflorescenee was rapidly pushing its 
way out of the scaly bud into the open air, and expanding 
_ many, about the middle of July, but it had evidently been in 
4 The Botanical Gazette. |January, 7 
time, as is the case with so many trees and shrubs, but some of 
them are terminated with scaly buds, while others continue 
growth for several months, and may perhaps even have their 
tips winter-killed. Terminal scaly buds were noticed at Hei- 
delberg, Germany, as early as June 1, although the date of ~ 
their first appearance is uncertain. They had every charac-. ~ 
ter of an aerial scaly bud destined to survive the winter — 
(fig. 14.) Perhaps the scales were a little too green, not at 
all coriaceous enough, but formerly while the plant was spring 
blossoming the case might have been different. Not a trace 
f an inflorescence was noticed in these buds until the first 
was quite large in all of the flowering buds, and during the 
preparatory to fall flowering. The upper scales of the scaly ~ 
bud are usually carried up on the common peduncle of the — 
inflorescence to a greater or less extent (fig. 15.) The forma- 
tion of a scaly bud at an early period, at a time when the 
leaves have almost reached their full growth, and the quite 
slow gradual development of this bud, are characters perfectly — 
incomprehensible in a summer-flowering plant, taking up the 
habit of blossoming in the fall, but are readily understood if ~ 
the plant be supposed to have changed froma spring toa 
late autumn-flowering plant. The ivy does not ripenits fruit — 
until the ensuing spring. Its character during winter was not 
noticed. - ; 
Colchicum autumnale usually flowers in October, but when 
the meadows have been inundated in the fall, or when the- 
fall has been unusually cold, it does not blossom until spring. 
The first trace of a flower was noticed at Heidelberg, Ger-_ 
existence for perhaps a week. At the end of the month the 
flower bud was still minute. The specimen figured belongs ~ 
to a much later date, just before the flowering season, and : 
represents the developing blossom. Asa means of present 
ing the morphology of this plant it is much better adapted. 
The bulb has one side considerably flattened, and the other 
decidedly convex (fig. 5); the lower portion of the bulb 
slopes obliquely downwards from the convex surface until it 
meets the flattened surface at an acute angle (fig. 5:) It con 
sists of two withered, naar scales enclosing the base 
