24 
O. S. U. Naturalist. 
[Vol. 1, No. 2 
Crown plants, while not true geophytes, are often closely related 
to rhizome plants and may be regarded as transitional. They are 
formed by the freezing back of the upright stem to the surface of 
the ground, and the survival of the short stem beneath the surface 
until the next Spring when it sends out branches from adventitious 
buds. In this way several branches are sent up where there was one 
before, and, as this crowds and injures the plant, these branches 
usually move out some distance from the base of the parent plant 
before coming to the surface. The connection with the main stem 
is often severed, and thus many new plants are formed. All this 
rarely takes place in the Spring but has been shifted back to late 
Summer or Fall by the parent plant. Often a food supply is stored 
up for the young plants by the parent. Helianthus tuberosus L. is a 
good example. 
Vegetative propagation is brought to its highest development in 
this class and they become our worst weeds. 
NOTES ECONOMIC AND TAXONOMIC ON THE SAW 
BRIER, SMILAX GLATJCA. 
W. A. Kellerman. 
(Plate 4.) 
In a recent trip through some of the southern counties of the 
State my attention was arrested by the enormous quantity of Smilax 
glauca — Glaucous-leaf Brier as given by Britton in the Illustrated 
Flora — but generally and appropriately called in these regions where 
so abundant, the Saw Brier. In the sandy soil of Hocking County* 
thence southward to the Ohio River this plant may be seen growing 
in field and pasture, by roadside and on hillside, and everywhere ex- 
cept in wet soils and dense woods. It climbs over fences and high 
bushes, displaying its bright foliage of lively green, more effective 
by contrast with the abundant white bloom on the under side. In 
the Autumn it presents showy wreaths of black but glaucous-coated 
berries and the most gorgeous coloration of foliage. The leaves 
remain for the most part late in Fall and Winter, and for brilliant 
and delicate shades of rose and red are not surpassed by any plant 
of our entire flora. The forbidding aspect of the long, wiry stems, 
with their bristly covering of long, saw-like or needle-shaped 
prickles, serves also to distinguish this plant even among the 
attractive associates of its kingdom. 
A Bad Weed.— As a weed this species here stands at the head 
of the list. Its horrid prickles make it one of the most disagreeable 
plants with which to come in contact. It revels in the pastures and 
clambers over the fences; it flourishes in the meadows and fields, 
and no ordinary practice of crop-cultivation interferes with its 
