I ID DEVELOPMENT OF Till'. 



connexion with the plant which was developed at the base of the 

 corm from the hud in the axil of the lowest leaf, and becomes 

 pex-fectly free. The time of each phenomenon cannot be exactly 

 marked, as it is subject to great variation. 



When we examine then the plant in autumn, we have parts 

 belonging to at least three different years ; first, the flowering 

 plant ; then the fleshy corm which produced the flowers in the 

 previous year, the dry brown envelope and a bunch of dead roots : 

 and lastly, the bud which is to produce the blossoms the next 

 year. Very frequently, however, the remains of earlier corms 

 and their investing coats are present. Three such coats may 

 sometimes be counted, investing one another ; the older being 

 outermost, and the youngest immediately inclosing the new corm. 



Since the number of leaves which precede the formation of the 

 primary bud is always the same, the bud being constantly in the 

 axil of the third leafy appendage (or first leaf), and the position 

 of these appendages is constant, it follows that the addition of 

 each new annual period in one and the same plant has always the 

 same direction. It is clear then that the addition of new parts 

 in the plants which spring from the bud in the axil of the second 

 leaf must be in a different direction from that of the primary bud. 

 It appears, however, that no remarkable change of place is com- 

 bined with this arrangement ; from the fact that the brown coats 

 envelope the produce of several years, having a narrow passage 

 only, through which the blossoms of one cycle, which is often three 

 or four years later than that to which the outer coat belongs, 

 protrude without any marked direction from a straight line. 



The circumstance that I have uniformly spoken of a corm and 

 not of a bulb requires no explanation, since it is a portion of the 

 axis, and no part of the leaves which assumes the office of storing 

 up the nutriment for the new plant. 



In conclusion, I must draw attention to a deviation from the 

 usual position of the leaves which I do not quite understand. 

 The second sheath in the young plant stands with its back to the 

 corm or axis of the last year's plant. What then is the position 

 of the first or shorter sheath with respect to this second sheath ? 

 It seems, judging from their earliest condition, as if it also stood 

 with its back to the axis of the last year's plant. In this case the 

 second sheath must stand before the first, and not alternating 

 with it ; if, however, we assume that the first stands on the side 

 of the young plant which is turned away from last year's axis, it 

 maintains its position before the leaf from whose axil the young 



