10 BULLETIN 1450, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
ing to the space for their development, they become so twisted from 
their normal position that the arrangement as described above may 
not be easily recognized. 
THE SHOOT 
It has already been stated that a timothy shoot originates in either 
one of two ways: (1) Directly through germination and growth 
from the embryo in the seed; (2) from a bud in the axil of a leaf. 
GROWTH IN LENGTH OF STEM 
It has been observed in northern Ohio that about the 1st of May 
(though this date varies somewhat with different seasonal conditions) 
the upper internodes of the shoots of timothy begin to become elon- 
gated. Shoots which have developed from buds late in the preceding 
summer make nearly all their growth in length during a period of 
10 or 11 weeks, after about the 1st of May. 
On any timothy shoot which produces an inflorescence each phy- 
tomer, or vegetative unit, has been formed relatively early in the 
spring, before the shoot has made more than slight, if any, appreci- 
able growth in length (4(9, p. 44) ■• 
In late spring or early summer in any meadow where there is a 
dense stand of plants, large numbers of shoots may be found which 
have ceased growth and become dry. In one meadow where the 
growth of timothy was comparatively dense, 21 shoots were marked 
in May, 1916, for observation later in the season. On July 25 it was 
found that only 13, or 61.9 per cent, of the shoots had continued 
growth up to that time. In cultivated rows, on the other hand, where 
each plant has ample space for growth most of the shoots produce 
culms. 
Shoots may become elongated in smaller numbers at any later time 
during the summer or fall, in the aftermath which grows in meadows 
after the first crop of hay has been harvested, if soil and weather 
conditions have been favorable for growth. When culms develop 
late in the fall, growth is often checked by cold weather before they 
have attained their full length. It has been found that in northern 
Ohio these partially elongated culms do not survive the winter. Six 
slightly elongated culms were observed November 11, 1914, and 
another group of 13 slightly elongated culms on November 8, 1916. 
None of them in either group were growing in the following spring. 
During the spring of 1916 a series of measurements was made of 
the stem of one shoot on each of 14 timothy plants. The first meas- 
urements were made on May 8, after growth in length had already 
begun. The average lengths (in inches) of these stems, not includ- 
ing the proaxes on dates when measurements were made, are as 
follows: May 8, 2.6; May 15, 3.1; May 23, 3.7; June 5, 8.7; June 12, 
13.6; June 19, 22.3; June 26, 29.7; July 5, 39.1; July 10, 41.4; July 17, 
41.5; July 24, 41.5. The same data are presented in graphic iorm 
in Figure 2. 
The length of the elongated internodes on the first dates when 
measurements were made was actually somewhat less than these 
figures indicate, for the reason that until the tip of the head appeared 
each stem was measured from its base to the tip of the sheath of 
