460 



FRUITS REPLACED BY OFFSHOOTS. 



fig. 343 ^). Those which ripen fruit, on the other hand, forin no offshoots, or only- 

 very few. In the Coral-root (Dentaria hidhifera, see figs. 344 ^' '■^' ^.^.s,) a similar state 

 of affairs prevails. Pollination is accomplished only by insect-agency, and where 

 insects fail no fruits are ripened. The plant grows sometimes near the sunny 

 border of young Beech-plantations where insects are plentiful, and also in the 

 forest of older growth in whose dusky glades bees and flies, humble-bees and 

 butterflies are rarely met with. Those which grow in the better lighted, younger 



Fig. 343. — Flowers and fruits replaced by tubers and bud-like oftshoots. 



Gac/ea Persica. 2 Lycopodium Selago. s Ranunculus Ficaria. * Bud-like offshoot from the leaf-axil of Gagea Persica. 

 5 Bud-like offshoot of Lycopodium Selago. « Tuber-like offshoot of Ranunculus Ficaria. 1, -, ^ nat. size; ■*. 5, 6 enlarged. 



portion of the wood ripen their cruciferous capsules, but the others, in the deep 

 gloom, are free of insects and blossom in vain. Their ovaries for the most part 

 abort and fall away, and only occasionally do their fruits come to maturity (c/. fig. 

 344^). But in proportion as fruit-production is arrested, vegetative propagation 

 by bulbils is promoted; large bulb-like buds are formed in the leaf -axils, which 

 disarticulate as summer advances and the shoot begins to fade; they are detached 

 by the wind as it sways the stems, and falling on the moist floor of the forest take 

 root (fig 344*) and give rise to subterranean rhizomes (fig. 344^). Some plants 



