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now wither away, and the embryo germ or bud is, by a similar process, carried 

 forward to maturity. 



In using the term " solid bulb" in the above description, I would wish it to 

 be clearly understood that I only avail myself of the common botanical phrase 

 expressive of the peculiar kind of bulb of this and similar plants ; for I am fully 

 convinced, by observations which I have recently made, that no such thing as a 

 solid bulb, strictly speaking, exists in nature. Every bulb is, in fact, a bud, in 

 which the stem enveloped in the leaves is, like the cylindrical tubes of a closed 

 telescope, depressed into the plane of its axis. The scales or tunics of which every 

 bulb consists are, in reality, so many leaves modified and swollen by excess of 

 nutritive matter, and many of them bearing in their axils smaller bulbs, the unde- 

 veloped buds of future plants. This is abundantly evident from a mere inspection 

 of the Crocus bulb (Fig. 2, a)* usually cited as an example of the solid bulb, but 

 which in reality consists of the base of the stem much swollen, enveloped by a 

 series of swollen and modified leaves closely agglutinated and concentrically over- 

 lapping each other (Fig. 2, a), and supporting in their axils a series of embry- 

 onic bulbs or buds (Fig. 2, b) spirally arranged. On tracing these concentric 

 leaves throughout the bulb to its summit, it will be found that the shoot or shoots 

 (Fig. 2, c) destined to produce flowers, &c, in the present year, are one or more 

 of these embryonic bulbs more highly developed than the rest. In these shoots, 

 also, the same concentric arrangement of the leaves will be found to exist. The 

 bulb of the Colchicum autumnale (Fig. 3),-j- usually adduced as another instance 

 of this form of bulb, is of a similar construction, though at first view very differ- 

 ent. The stem in this case is excessively and immoderately swollen, the envelop- 

 ing leaves so firmly agglutinated as to be only distinguishable in a thickened 

 scale or protrusion (Fig. 3, a) immediately below the young bulb (Fig. 3, b), 

 which maintains its proper place in the axil ; and in those instances in which a 

 second embryonic bulb occurs, this is invariably in such a situation that a line 

 drawn from the first embryonic bulb to it will form a portion of a spiral. This, 

 in short, is the mode of growth we might naturally expect in these plants, belong- 

 ing as they do to the great natural class of Monocotyledons — a growth perfectly 

 analogous, although performed in a shorter period, to that of the Palms, and other 

 tropical tribes of this class. 



The benevolent Paley adduces the unusual periods of the autumnal flowering 

 and vernal ripening of the seeds of the Colchicum autumnale, as an apt illustra- 

 tion of his doctrine of compensation. No apology may be deemed necessary for 

 repeating his exquisite and well-remembered words : — " 1 have pitied," he says, 



* a, bulb of the Crocus — a, the leaves swollen into concentric scales — I, the embryonic 

 bulbs in the axils of the leaves — c, the embryonic bulbs developed into flowering shoots. 



•f a, bulb of the Colchicum — a, the leaves swollen into thickened scales or protrusions — b, 

 the young bulbs and stems in the axils of the leaves. 



