26 BI'LLETIX 1087, U. S. DEPAETMEXT OF AGEICULTUKE. 



plants have very broad, deep-set crowns, well-developed rhizomes, 

 and dense root systems. Taproots are either absent or ver}' indis- 

 tinct. The decumbent form is intermediate between the other two 

 forms. The taproots are indistinct, short, and rapidly tapering. This 

 .strain had the most extensive root systems of all the alfalfas studied. 

 A comparison of the different kinds of alfalfa reveals striking 

 differences between certain varieties and strains. There are out- 

 standing differences between the root systems of southern-grown 

 common and yellow-flowered alfalfas in the prominence of the tap- 

 roots, the development of branch roots, the number and development 

 of rhizomes, and in the number and place of most profuse produc- 

 tion of fibrous roots. Between many plants of common alfalfa, es- 

 pecially of the less upright forms, and many plants of the Turkestan 

 and Grimm alfalfas, however, differences are not great, and it is 

 often impossible to determine by their root systems the groups to 

 which these plants belong. In brief, the root systems of the least 

 hardy forms of purple-flowered alfalfa may be distinguished from 

 the most hardy hybrid and yellow-flowered alfalfas with accuracy, 

 but the intermediate forms are not sufficiently distinct to be distin- 

 guishable from one another or invariably from some forms of the 

 nonhardy or yellow-flowered alfalfas, 



