444 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JUNE 
seasonal rings was above and the younger ones farther down the 
slope, stretched out in an almost straight line by the flowing talus. 
After a stem has been buried it is sometimes difficult to detect the 
growth of succeeding seasons. 
Underground stems rising from stems which have been buried for 
some years were found creeping among the loose stones and coarse 
sand of the sandstone slopes. These shoots are, in effect, rhizomes 
which later produce aerial shoots either by branching or by erecting 
5.—Underground connections of a small clump of Ephedra found in the talus 
deed ‘. the extreme right of fig. 2; a, young rhizome; , older rhizome which has sent 
up an aerial shoot; c, rhizomes whitch have erected their stem tips. 
the main stem tip, or by both methods. The rhizome habit is shown 
in fig. 5. The branched underground shoot a, springing from the 
buried stem which has also given rise to the damaged cluster of 
aerial branches, has grown in one season (1911). At d is an older 
stem which has produced an aerial branch. At ¢ is a stem which 
has branched, and the branches, after a time, have become aerial 
by erecting their tips. The rhizomatous branches were not found 
where the soil is compact, being only in loose sand and small stones. 
It seems worthy of note that the soil above 2200 meters, the upper 
