BULBS ON STALKS 



By Willard N. Clute. 



A CCORDIXG to the dictionary, a bulb is a short thick 

 -*•■*' stem. When Nature decides on a new form, however, 

 she does not consult the lexicographers and in consequence we 

 often get specimens that do not conform to the definitions. In 

 the present instance, the curious elongated objects shown are 

 really bulbs, for they occurred among hundreds of the conven- 

 tional type, but they are so much like chubby sprouts, that at 

 first glance they seem to be quite unrelated to the usual form. 

 When planted, these stalked bulbs become normal plants of the 

 wild hyacinth (Camassia esculenta), and if given room they 

 will form rounded bulbs like those of the onion. When the 

 regular bulbs are allowed to grow in one place long enough to 

 produce one or two generations of bulblets, the crowding that 



