ORIGIN OF VELD AND KARROO PLANTS. 43 



creen leaves seen after the rains die, the bulbs remain, 

 because the thick scales of which they are composed 

 store up water which keeps them from drying up, and 

 enables them to start into growth when the proper time 

 comes round. 



It is not only nearly all the lily-like plants which 

 have bulbs, but many make them, which one would not 

 expect to find doing so, as 

 certain kinds of Pelargoniums, 

 which frequent dry and rocky 

 places. All others of this 

 kind of plant, growing in 

 good soil and plenty of 

 moisture, never have any 

 bulbs at all. 



Sometimes it is the under- 

 Lifround stem which swells 

 into a globular mass, looking 

 much like a bulb; such is 

 called a corm. This occurs 

 in the numerous kinds of 

 Glad'iolits. 



As plants with bulbs and corms are very abundant 

 in Cape Colony, it will be as well to illustrate and 

 explain their differences. 



Fig. 21 is the bulb of an onion cut down through 

 the middle, showing the thick, conical base of the stem, 

 &, and the central flowering stem at the top. Two 



Fig. 21.— Tuuicated bulb of the 

 Onion : h, plate or disc ; a, bulbils. 



