30 ARISAEMA TRIPHYLLUM 
These vary both as to number and size. Usually not more than 
three buds are formed in a season. The size varies with the size 
of the primary corm, and with the length of the growing season. 
As stated above, the buds appear first with the growth of the 
second season. They may then be as much as 2 mm. thick or may 
be indicated merely by a slight hump over the bud initials. 
Mature corms may produce buds varying from initial cell groups 
up to bodies as large as third year seedling corms, i. e., up to 15 
mm. in thickness. The greater part of the growth is made the 
first season. In some cases growth is noticeable after the 
first season. The buds may be broken from the primary corm 
and begin independent growth at any time after their formation; 
and they are regularly pushed off with the dead periderm about the 
fourth year. Very rarely they produce roots and begin inde- 
pendent growth while attached to the old corm (PLATE 5, FIG. 69). 
But in no case has the writer seen a bud shrivelled as would be the 
case if any of the starch should be at any time withdrawn into 
the parent corm. After being detached the buds develop in 
every way as seedling corms, and require one to several years of 
growth before producing flowers. Gow (14, p. 135) states that 
buds may produce flowers the season following detachment; but 
the writer has failed to verify the finding. 
It will be seen at once that, since they may be readily broken 
off by trampling of animals or by soil movements resulting from 
freezing or floods, these buds are important means of vegetative 
propagation. In fact, the increase in number of plants where 
large corms have been dug up, the spreading colonies of small 
plants in wooded pastures, and finally, the very few seedlings found 
in this section, all indicate that the buds are the chief means of 
multiplication. 
One of the most noticeable features of the corms as collected 
in the field, is their lack of symmetry and their oblique position 
(PLATE 3, FIGS. 50, 51). It is quite rare to find mature corms more 
nearly symmetrical than the one in PLATE 5, FIG. 69. In many 
cases this is certainly due to displacement by the trampling by 
animals; but in the writer’s opinion, it is more often due to the 
formation of an unequal number of roots on different sides of the 
bud. This unequal distribution causes an upsetting of the corm 
Sai a tae 
