IX] CORM AND BULB 125 



of reserve materials and surrounded by sheathing scale- 

 leaves, and similarly in Cyclamen : from an axillary bud of 

 one of these the flowering stems and green leaves of the 

 current season arise, and are fed by the contents of the 

 corm. Then the green leaves send down supplies to swell 

 the basal part of this bud into a new corm, an axillary 

 bud on which will form the leaves, &c., for- next year; and 

 so on. In Crocus, on the other hand, and in Gladiolus, the 

 swollen part of the corm consists of several basal inter- 

 nodes, and the axillary buds whose swollen bases will 

 form the new corms often appear on the top, owing to the 

 accident of high insertion of the leaves whose axils are 

 concerned. In some CVocws-corms, however, the new buds 

 (future corms) appear at the sides, or even the base, in 

 each case from the axil of a scale with a corresponding 

 insertion. 



The tuberous swelling at the base of the stem of 

 Ranunculus bulbosus also concerns several internodes, and 

 is a corm in the same sense as in Bowiea, Testudinaria, &c. 



If, now, the reserves of food-material whose storage 

 brings about the swelling of the short stem in a corm like 

 that of Crocus, were deposited instead in the leaves or leaf- 

 bases inserted on this stem, which would then be only 

 short and not swollen, we should term the structure a Bulb, 

 and this is the only essential difference between these two 

 sets of organs. Some authors, indeed, apply the term solid 

 bulb to corms like Colchicum and Gladiolus, which are 

 invested by sheathing scale-leaves, to mark the distinction 

 from naked corms like Cyclamen where the insertions of 

 the scale-leaves stop near the apex ; but little is gained 

 thereby as the corms of Crocus and others show. 



As the Bulb proper has been dealt with in the section 

 on buds no more need be said in this connection. In 

 many epiphytic tropical orchids, however, the base of the 



