SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 191 



adopt the more ingenious plan of merely prolonging 

 their creeping stems. This is a more economical 

 method, and does not involve much saving of plant 

 material — only a little at the swelling of the nodes 

 or joints where the adventitious roots sprout, and 

 where a new plant will shoot. 



All bulbous plants, and those thus provided with 

 an abundant supply of easily assimilated foods, have a 

 great advantage over such of their brethren as have 

 not acquired the habit of storing food-stuffs. They 

 are the first to avail themselves of the returning 

 light and warmth of the sun, and we find them the 

 characteristic spring and early summer plants. In 

 order to lose neither time nor opportunity, many of 

 them shoot up into flowers at once, like the Snowdrop 

 and Crocus, and so avail themselves of the services 

 of the comparatively few insects which are then 

 abroad, leaving the development of their leaves to 

 the more leisurely opportunities afforded during the 

 later and warmer summer months. 



The relation between accumulation and expen- 

 diture of organic energy, — the operation of two 

 agencies usually regarded by politicians as com- 

 pletely opposed to each other — is thus seen to 

 be mutually advantageous to the individual plant 

 and also to the species of which it is a member. 

 Reference was made in a previous chapter to such 

 plants as the Aloe and Yucca, which will vegetate 

 for years, meantime storing up abundance of surplus 



