THE COMMON PRIMROSE 



yields to winter's icy grip — but not before ample 

 food-stuffs are safely stored below ground. 



The seeds germinate, and in the following 

 spring, by the time the parent plant has got its 

 leaves well above the ground, the offspring plants 

 appear in httle clusters round about it. Later 

 we find them growing up under the eyes of their 

 parents, as it w^ere (Fig. 62, Plate 41). It will take 

 each little plant more than one year of growth to 

 produce a clump of leaves and a show of flowers 

 like those of its parent, but that is the way in 

 which the natural flower-bed on the hillside, which 

 has now crept down into the coppice, was gradu- 

 ally formed (Fig 6^, Plate 42). 



33 



