70 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



lower part of the bark is often nibbled by such 

 animals as rabbits ; and to prevent this mischance 

 most smaller plants bury their rich food-stuffs 

 underground during the cold season. For what- 

 ever will feed a young plant or a growing shoot 

 will also just equally feed an animal. Hence the 

 frequency with which plants make hoards of their 

 collected food-stuffs underground, for use next 

 season. The potato is a well-known instance of 

 such underground hoards ; the plant lays by in 

 what are technically subterranean branches a sup- 

 ply of food-stuff for next season's growth. These 

 branches are covered with undeveloped buds, 

 which the farmer calls "eyes"; and from each of 

 these eyes (if the potato is left undisturbed, as 

 nature meant it to be) a branch or stem will start 

 afresh next season. It will use up the starch and 

 other foodstuffs in the potato, till it reaches the 

 light ; and there it will begin to develop green 

 chlorophyll, and to make fresh starch for itself, 

 and young leaves and branches. 



An immense number of plants thus lay by 

 underground stores of food for next season's use. 

 Such are the carrot, the beet, and the turnip. And 

 in every case the young shoots that spring from 

 them use up the starches and other food-stuffs at 

 first exactly as an animal would do. These stores 

 are often protected against animals by hard coats 

 of poisonous juices. Many well-known examples 

 of subterranean stores occur among our spring 

 garden flowers, which are for the most part either 

 bulbous or tuberous. The material laid by in the 

 bulb allows them to start flowering early, while 

 annuals and other unthrifty plants have to wait 

 till they have collected enough material in the 

 same year to flower upon. Hyacinths, tulips, 



