196 



BOTANICAL NOTICE FOR FEBRUARY. 



THE CROCUS AND SNOW^DROP. 



As both the above-named plants possess, what are commonly known 

 as bulbous roots, it will be a proper time to examine into the nature 

 of a bulb. 



Linnaeus considered a bulb to be the leaf-bud of the root, or the 

 winter quarters of the future plant. That it could not be the leaf- 

 bud of the root is certain from the fact, that roots are especially 

 characterised as having no buds ; yet, according to modern authors, 

 he was con-ect in stylhig it a leaf-bud. 



Until very lately, bulbs were known as being of three kinds, 

 namely, the scaly, as in the lily ; the tunicated, as. in the onion ; 

 and the solid, as in the crocus. But modern authors are quite indis- 

 posed to admit such a thing as a solid bulb. Professor Lindley 

 says a solid bulb has no existence. The bulb of the crocus, which 

 has been considered a root, appears to be in reality an underground 

 stem, to which the name of cormus is given by recent writers, 

 so that it is distinct from a true bulb it being not an imbricated 

 scaly bulb, but a solid, pithy, subterraneous stem ; itself emitting 

 bulbs, which can be seen upon Its surface. In one respect the bulb 

 differs essentially from a bud ; it is not a perishable part, intended 

 merely as a protection to the young and tender vital point, from 

 which new growth is to take place : this, indeed, is a part of its 

 object, but, as I observed in the botanical notice for January, the 

 bulb also serves as a copious reservoir of nutritive matter, upon 

 which the young leaves and flowers feed. On this account, the 

 scales of the lily bulb are not thin and easily withered up, as in a 

 common bud, but succulent, and capable of retaining their moisture 

 through long and severe drought. Thus we find, that in the cultiva- 

 tion of bulbous plants in this country, they prosper the best in a 

 light sandy soil, for they are, generally, natives of situations which, 

 in certain seasons of the year, are quite dried up, and where all 

 vegetation would perish, if it were not for some such provision as we 

 find in the bulb j even on the buraing shores of tropical India, beyond 



