362 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
individual becoming more robust with time, but otherwise remain- 
ing the same. A very slight increase in depth occurs as time 
passes, since the new bulbs are a little larger than their predeces- 
sors, and the new bulb is formed below the center of the old one 
which it replaces. But a bulb once flowering may revert to the 
sterile condition after a series of years. Bulbs which have been 
dug from the soil and allowed to become somewhat dried out 
are apt to “break,” that is, to produce two or three small bulbs 
instead of the single large one customary in the flowering plants. 
Bulbs so produced are sterile for at least two years, as found by 
experiment. This is especially apt to occur if the bulbs are dug 
while the shoot is actively growing upward through the soil in the 
spring. Removal of the soil close to a bulb of a flowering plant 
often causes such to revert to the immature condition and produce 
runners, even though the flowering of the current season is not 
hindered by the changed soil conditions. 
Individual plants of any age may force the bulb rudiments 
into abnormal development under the stimulation of unfavorable 
conditions. A large number of bulbs of various sizes were dug 
soon after the leaves had pushed through the soil. These with 
a little soil were left in a tin box for several days; the box was 
well wrapped and left in a cool room in the meanwhile. Upon 
inspection ten days later, the leaves were found to have shriveled 
away, but the bulbs had formed a small bulb from each of the buds 
which under normal conditions would have developed runners. The 
starch present in the old bulb and in the leaf furnished the material 
for the new bulbs, aside from water, which was in the moist soil. 
This was repeated several times, the exact details varying with 
the exact condition of the bulbs when dug from the soil. Thus if ” 
the runner is already pushing through the base of the bulb, or 
is further developed, it continues to elongate for several days, but 
in the end will form the terminal bud into the bulb; it apparently 
transfers to it the substance of the old bulb and runner stalk as if 
under normal conditions. 
In the descriptions of the liliaceous ovary, the placentae are 
usually said to come from the incurved margins of the carpellary 
leaves. In Erythronium, however, the margins of the carpels 
EN LESTE ase ey a ete en RSLS RAN SSP Ege Sele y= ea RIA ne CMMI? Meg Suae ay ate eo ee eee ere 
