19t0] BLODGETI—BULBS OF ERYTHRONIUM 357 
elbow of the peduncle, certain of the peduncle bundles produce 
branches which grow with the advance of the bud and maintain 
connection with the main vascular supply of the plant (B); but in 
so doing the total supply available to the peduncle is divided 
between the runner and the peduncle itself, and the reduced size 
of the flower appears to be the result. 
In the species east of Colorado the aerial portions of the plant 
disintegrate with the ripening of the seeds, the fruit being prostrate 
when the seeds are ripe. The species of the Rocky Mountain 
region and westward do not become prostrate, but as the fruits 
ripen the stalk becomes a stiff and elastic wand, from the top of 
Which the seeds are shaken. In these the capsule is revolute only 
at the apex, in the others the capsule splits completely to the base; 
among the first species the seeds are thrown out of the capsule by 
shaking; in the second group they are released by the rolling back 
of the inclosing walls of the prostrate capsule. The Eurasian 
species E. Dens-canis belongs to the second group in respect to its 
seed dispersal. 
The western species differ from the forms of the eastern states 
in details of bulb development. In the eastern forms the region 
of fusion between the bulb tissues and those of the bud is small; 
and the sheath inclosing the bud, either in the case of the runner 
bulbs or when renewed in situ, is free from the developing bulb 
for most of its surface; but in the western forms the elongated 
bulb has a long fusion zone along the axial side, where the base 
of the sheath and the surface of the inclosed bud scale are fused. 
is appears as a ridge, from the edges of which the husk, in 
fully formed bulbs, extends around the rest of the bud. The 
bulbs are as a rule much more attenuate in the western forms than 
in the eastern, both in the young and in the adult stages. In 
mmature bulbs the tip of the new bulb is often not at all lower 
than the base of the preceding bulb; this is due to the elongation 
Upward on the part of the bud scales at a rate equal to that of the 
descent of the base of the new bulb in the petiole sheath. In the 
Older bulbs the descent is decreased, but the elongation of the 
bulb scales upward from their bases produces the long bulbs 
characteristic of the group. In the bulbs examined, the species 
