82 Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



ground, it is stored by underground reservoirs of bulbs, corms, 

 or root tubers which abound in the Karroo. These have often 

 to give up their stores to thirsty natives and travellers. 



Some plants have large bulbs near the surface, or, as in 

 Boweia, above ground, while others send a long neck deep 

 down into the earth ; at the end, patient digging reveals a small 



Fig. 84. — Satyrum cnndidum. 



Fig. 85. — Crassula barbata, with spine- 

 protected leaves and bracts. 



bulb or corm. There is not the need of storing such an 

 abundant supply if the neck can go down in search of water. 



For this reason mucli of the gardener's labour is in vain which is spent 

 in carefully hoeing up the soil around his onions. Compare the size of 

 onions which have had the earth heaped around them with those which 

 have been cultivated, leaving their bulbs partially exposed. 



Plants growing in dry places frequently bear their leaves 

 all in one plane, so that one leaf covers the leaf beneath it. 

 Some bulbous plants have their edges, instead of the flat 

 surfaces, turned toward the stem, their bases, partly sheathing 



