62 BRITISH PLANTS 
In the spring, when the buds open, the bud-scales fall 
off, leaving scars on the shoots. The shoot does not 
elongate in the region of these scars, and if we examine 
an old twig we can, by noting the places where these 
scars are close together in a series of rings, determine how 
old the twig is, and how much it has grown each year. 
Geophilous Plants.—This term, which means earth- 
loving (Gr. ge, earth ; phileo, I love), is applied to those 
herbaceous perennials which, after flowering, die down 
to the ground. During winter either nothing at all shows 
above ground or a rosette of closely-packed radical leaves 
lie just on the surface of the soil. The important part is 
underground. The tulip hibernates in a bulb (p. 156), 
the crocus in a corm (p. 158), the meadow-saxifrage in 
bulbils (p. 160), the potato in tubers (p. 111). The fern 
dies down to a short, thick, unbranched, erect rhizome, 
or “‘ root-stock ”’ (p. 110) ; the dog’s-mercury, coltsfoot, and 
couch-grass to long branching rhizomes (p. 110). All 
these perennating* organs are stem- structures, well 
stored with food, from whose buds arise the shoots which 
appear above ground the following spring. These aerial 
leafy shoots are hygrophytic, mesophytic, or xerophytic, 
according to the water-conditions which prevail during 
the summer : 
1. Many marsh-plants are hygrophilous geophytes, 
dying down in the winter to rhizomes which hibernate 
in the mud—e.g., reeds, sedges, horsetails, reed-mace 
(Typha), common reed (Phragmites), etc. Plants living 
in moist shade like wood-sorrel and the moschatel (Adowa) 
may be regarded as less pronounced hygrophilous geo- 
phytes. 
2. The majority of our herbaceous perennials show no 
decided summer habit, and are therefore mesophilous 
geophytes: white deadnettle, toadflax, mint, chervil, 
tulip, crocus, etc. 
3. A few are even xerophytic in the summer—e.g., 
Sedum Rhodiola, a large-leaved alpine stonecrop, and 
Psamma, the sand-dune grass, etc. 
Bulbs.—As an example of a pronounced geophyte, we 
will take a bulbous plant. If a narcissus or tulip be dug 
up in September, it will be seen that a new leafy shoot is 
packed away in the bulb in the form of a large bud 
* Latin, perennis = lasting. 
