weeks after being placed in moist soil, carrying the hypocotyl and 

 plumule. It becomes progeotropic almost immediately upon its 

 emergence from the seed coats and pushes its way down into the 

 soil to a depth of 8 to io mm. The basal or outer end of the 

 hypocotyl next becomes slightly enlarged giving rise to one to 

 three roots which penetrate the soil to a depth of 2 or 3 centi- 

 meters. These roots are well provided with root hairs in the 

 earlier stages of their existence and later contract to some extent 

 as indicated by the wrinkled epidermis, losing the root hairs 

 previous to this process. This results, of course, in the pulling 

 of the corm downward into the soil, and the repetition of the 

 process in succeeding stages finally buries the adult corm to a 

 depth of 10 cm. or more. 



Shortly after root-formation has begun, the first leaf begins to 

 grow, emerging from the cylindrical cotyledon through a rupture 

 near the seed. By the activity of the leaf, carbohydrates are 

 formed, and the third stage of the seedling is marked by the en- 

 largement of the corm until it reaches a size about equal or 

 greater than the seed, and is conical, or globose in form. Almost 

 all of the original store in the seed is expended in the construc- 

 tion of the seedling in the two first stages of development. 



During the course of the etiolation experiments, numbers of 

 seeds and plants were divided into two lots, one being placed in 

 the dark chamber and a second in the experimental laboratory. 

 The seeds from an entire fruit of A. Dracontium were thus 

 placed in two pots in January. No seedlings being visible in 

 the first week of May the soil was explored to determine the 

 fate of the seeds. To the great surprise of the writer num- 

 bers of seedlings were found which had undergone the develop- 

 ment underneath the surface, and those in the dark room were 

 indistinguishable from those grown in the light. In fact, this 

 plant was found to offer a second example of a germination of 

 the seed without development of the plumule, a type of pro- 

 cedure which is followed also by Arum maciilatum as discovered 

 by Scott and Sargant* 



* Scott and Sargant. On the Development of Arum maculatum from the Seed. 

 Annals of Botany, 12 : 399-414. 1898. 



