Handbook of N 'alure-Sludy 



Courtesy of Doubleday, Page & Co. 



CULTIVATED-PLANT STUDY 



The old and young 



corms of the 



crocus. 



THE CROCUS 

 Teacher 's Story 



The crocus, like the snowdrop, cannot wait for the 

 snow to be off the ground before it pushes up its gay 

 blossoms, and it has thus earned the gratitude of those 

 who are winter weary. 



The crocus has a corm instead of a bulb like the 

 snowdrop or daffodil. A corm is a solid, thickened, 

 underground stem, and is not in layers, like the onion. 

 The roots come off the lower side of the corm. The 

 corm of the crocus is well wrapped in several, usually 

 five, white coats with papery tips. When the plant 

 begins to grow the leaves push up through the coats. 

 The leaves are grasslike and may be in number from two to eight, depend- 

 ing on the variety. Each leaf has its edge folded, and the white midrib 

 has a plait on either side, giving it the appearance of being box-plaited on 

 the under side. The bases of the leaves enclosed in the corm coats are 

 yellow, since they have had no sunlight to start their starch factories and 

 the green within their cells. At the center of the leaves appear the blos- 

 som buds, each enclosed in a sheath. 



The petals and sepals are similar in color, but the three sepals are on 

 the outside, and their texture, especially on the outer side, is coarser than 

 that of the three protected petals. But sepals and petals unite into a 

 long tube at the base. At the very base of this corolla tube, away down 

 out of sight, even below the surface of the ground, is the seed-box, or 

 ovary. From the tip of the ovary the style extends up through the 

 corolla-tube and is tipped with a ruffled three-lobed stigma. 



