VARIOUS FOOD-PLANTS 63 
Fic. 60.—Onion. (Alliwm Cepa, Lily Family, Liliacee). A, bulb at the 
beginning of the second year’s growth (3) cut to show the short stem 
from which roots spring below, and, above, last year’s leaves of which 
there remain only the thickened bases forming the ‘‘ coats of the onion”’ 
and filled with food now being used up by the new leaves developing 
from a bud at the center. B, upper part of a leaf cut to show its tubular 
form. C, plant toward the end of its second year (8); the upper (once 
green) part of the leaves having withered, are replaced by a green 
hollow stem (shown cut across at D) which bears a cluster of white 
flowers, and finally the fruit. (A, original; B, C, D redrawn from 
Reichenbach.) 
