132 - TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
Viz. they have stamens and pistils. Their splendour is 
due to the development of subordinate and, compara- 
tively speaking, unimportant parts, the calyx and corolla. 
All these beauties are, above all, contrivances to bring 
insects to carry the pollen from one flower to another, 
and the general principle of fertilisation is in no way 
modified. On the other hand, the plants as a whole 
“are not so advanced as the Dicotyledons, and they have 
the same limitations as the grasses. The seeds, of course, 
have still one seed-leaf; in almost every instance the 
leaves are not complicated by division, and, which is 
most important, their growth is limited by the mode of 
growth of the fibro-vascular bundles. (See Chapter IIL) 
The cambium ring is not formed. As another guide 
for recognising the group, remember that the veins of the 
leaf are almost invariably parallel with the mid-rib. 
One peculiarity of the group, which you must often 
have noticed, is their tendency to form bulbs, or tubers. 
During its leafy stage, throughout the summer, the plant 
is busily engaged in sending down underground starch 
grains and proteids as a provision for the coming winter. 
Around the stem, at the base, thick, fleshy leaves are formed, 
containing nutriment for the plant next early spring, 
when food is hard to get from the soil, and the sunlight 
of the short days is scanty. By this means, for instance, 
the snowdrop is enabled to be up early and secure the 
necessary attention from insects before the competition 
grows keen. Notice, also, how these early flowers do 
not hasten the development of their leaves, which would 
find but little to do. When the common garden Crocus, 
for instance, has sent up its flower, until its work is done 
the energy of the plant is devoted almost entirely to it, 
but when the bees have carried away its yellow pollen, 
