SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 183 



Earth-nuts, granules of Saxifrages, Pilewort, etc. 

 These parts of plants are not all roots, as people 

 imagine, but frequently true buds ; so that we have 

 underground as well as aboveground buds. From 

 these subterranean parts new plants will arise, as 

 every man knows who has planted potatoes. He is 

 aware that one large potato may be cut up into a 

 number of small pieces, and that each piece will 

 develop, if placed in proper soil, into a new Potato- 

 plant, provided he does not damage the " eyes " in 

 cutting up. These " eyes " are in reality the parts 

 where growth takes place, the rest of the potato 

 being simply so much starch-food, on which the 

 young plant feeds, as certainly as an infant does on 

 its mother's breast, until it gets strong enough to 

 absorb its own nutriment from the soil. Singularly 

 enough, the most beautiful plants in the world resort 

 to this method of underground storage of food- 

 material, all intended either for another season or for 

 another individual. In the " bulbs " of the Hyacinth, 

 Lily, Daffodil, Snowdrop, Tulip, etc., and those of 

 the various Orchids, we have a store of starch, laid 

 by for next year, saved out of last summer's vege- 

 table earnings. 



Get the bulb of a Dutch Hyacinth, sold by florists, 

 and place it in the top of one of the coloured glasses 

 made on purpose to receive it, first filling the glass 

 with rain-water, so that the base of the bulb is 

 kept moistened. Let the plant be placed in the 



