

BOTANY OF fHE LIVING PLANT 



,,-, after which the plant dies. Extreme cases of this method, 

 wnC r C the itive period may extend over several years, and is 



terminated by flowering, fruiting, and death of the individual, are 

 en in certain Bamboos, in Agave, and conspicuously in the large 

 pka. Tins plant, after years of vegetative growth, flowers 

 with an inflorescence thirty or forty feet in height, fruits profusely, 

 and <1. 



Fig. 129. 

 Perennial stock of Iris, a, b, c, successive yearly growths. (After Figuier.) 



On the other hand, if the flowering be not profuse the perennation 

 may go on indefinitely, as in ordinary bulbs and herbaceous plants. 

 Each year a surplus of food-material is laid aside in underground 

 parts. In autumn the aerial parts may die away, but the stock remains 

 dormant and usually buried underground. Its store is thus protected 

 1 the rigours of winter, till in spring fresh shoots develop similar 

 to those of the previous year. Most of these plants form their foliage 

 I es first, and they have the advantage of developing more rapidly 

 than in germination, as they can draw on the store already in hand in 

 the stock. But some flower at once, even before their vegetative 



