4 LILIACEOUS FLOWERS. 



parts are found in the flowers of most other plants.,- 

 but in different proportion, situation, and number. By 

 the analogy of these parts, and their different combi- 

 nations, the families of the vegetable kingdom are 

 determined ; and these analogies are connected with 

 others in those parts of the plant which seem to have 

 no relation to them. For instance, this number of 

 six stamens, sometimes only three, with six petals or 

 divisions of the corolla, and the triangular germ with 

 its three cells, determine the liliaceous tribe ; in its 

 most extensive sense, and in many of the most con- 

 spicuous genera, the roots partake more or less of 

 the nature of bulbs. That of the Lily is a squamous 

 bulb, or composed of scales, disposed in an imbricated 

 order, or laid over each other like tiles on the roof of 

 a house ; in the onion it is tunicated, or consisting of 

 a number of coats laid over each other circularly ; in 

 the Tulip the coatings are so indistinct, that the bulb 

 appears nearly solid, and so approaches the nature 

 of the tuberous root ; in the Crocus the bulbs appear 

 to grow over each other, or, more properly, beneath 

 each other, for many bulbs have apparently a tenden- 

 cy to descend as long as the soil permits them ; in the 

 Colchicum they grow out side by side. 



Bulbs appear often, if not always, to be produced 

 by the subterraneous continuation of the bases of the 

 leaves, taking upon them a thick and fleshy consistence, 

 and containing within them resources of nourishment 

 for the plant they are destined to support. In the squa- 

 mous bulbs, also, each scale often appears, like a bud, 

 to possess the germ of an independent existence, so 

 that the species may be increased by planting them. 

 Bulbs have a prolific faculty superior to buds, with 

 which they have been compared, as the scales them- 

 selves are capable of budding and growing upwards 

 and downwards ; but ordinarily the bud perishes if 



