216 
UNDERGROUND STOREHOUSES 
ONG ago we learned that certain plants stow away 
the food which they are not fitted to use at the 
time in those thick underground stems which most 
people call roots. 
This food they hold over till the next year. 
It is often a surprise, these spring days, to see how 
suddenly a little plant will burst into blossom. One 
does not understand how it has had time to get up such 
a display. Had it been obliged to depend for food upon 
new supplies taken in by its roots and leaves, the flower 
would have put off its first appearance for many a day. 
So when a plant surprises you with any such sudden 
and early blossoms, you can be pretty sure that its food 
supply has been on hand all winter. 
Both in the garden and in the woods you can see for 
yourselves that this is so. In the garden perhaps the 
earliest flower to appear is the lovely little snowdrop. 
The snowdrop’s food is stored away in the “bulb,” as 
- we call its thick, underground stem, which lies buried 
in the earth. 
The other early garden flowers, such as the hyacinth, 
crocus, daffodil, and tulip, are able to burst into beauti- 
ful blossoms only because of the care and labor with 
which they laid by underground provisions last year. 
And in the woods at this season you find the yellow 
adder’s tongue, spring beauty, anemone, wake-robin, 
Jack-in-the-pulpit, wild ginger, and Solomon’s seal. 
Each of these plants has stores of food hidden in its 
