8 BULLETIN 1450, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Although there may be buds which can be readily observed in the 
axils of 10 or more leaves at the base of a shoot, seldom if ever does 
every one of them grow into a lateral shoot. On plants growing 
under very crowded conditions, or which for other reasons are lack- 
ing in vigor, often none of the buds develops into an innovation. 
On more vigorous plants in timothy meadows a shoot may produce 
one or two, less frequently more, lateral shoots. Usually these lateral 
shoots grow from the buds at the one or two nodes immediately 
below the haplocorm or from the node just above it, rather than 
from buds at other nodes. When the plant is growing under excep- 
tionally favorable conditions a single shoot may produce from five 
to seven, or even more, lateral shoots. 
Buds may grow into shoots at any time, yet in meadows where 
there is a dense stand of plants it is not until about midsummer, 
after the seeds on the fully grown stems approach maturity and the 
leaves become dry, that the buds at the bases of the steins become 
more active. As the buds enlarge, the sheaths of the first leaves 
become elongated and the blades unfold, roots develop, and the 
branch becomes an independent shoot (3, p. 20). A young timothy 
shoot or innovation which developed from a bud on an older shoot 
is shown in Plate 2, B. 
INCREASE IN SIZE OF PLANT 
The appearance of typical timothy plants grown from seeds at 
different stages of development is illustrated in Figure 1 and in 
Plates 1 and 3. 
Grasses are commonly classified in two groups: (1) Turf forming, 
of which Kentucky blue grass (Poa pratensis L. ) may be considered 
a typical example; and (2) bunch forming, of which orchard grass 
(Dactylis glomerata L.) is an example. Although timothy resem- 
bles orchard grass more nearly than Kentucky blue grass in its man- 
ner of growth, at the same time the plants are generally less com- 
pact than in orchard grass. 
Although timothy plants growing under normal conditions do not 
spread by means of rooting stems like the turf-forming grasses, yet 
the size of the plant does tend to increase somewhat as it becomes 
older. The proaxes are usually more or less procumbent, growing 
outward from the center of the plant. As buds in the upper part of 
the proaxis and also frequently a bud at the node above the haplo- 
corm develop into shoots, the circumference of the plant tends to 
become greater. In a timothy meadow where the plants were ex- 
amined October 3, 1914, new snoots were found rooted 1 inch farther 
from the center of the plant than the older shoots from which they 
developed, though on most of the plants in this meadow the dis- 
tance was less than 1 inch. 
Under unusual conditions underground rooting stems or rhizomes 
may develop in timothy. TVTien plants are covered with a few inches 
of soil, there is sometimes an elongation of one or more of the lower 
internodes which normally would not become elongated. There is 
thus a rooting stem by means of which the terminal bud of the shoot 
becomes established near the surface of the soil. The name "topo- 
thete " has been suggested for rooting stems of this type in timothy 
and other grasses (27, p. 173-178). 
