•80 NOTES ON LILIES 



which is to bear tlie flower stem of the following year. lu Tulipa, 

 the outer tunics are brown and leathery, the inner tunics several in 

 number, and so thick that the bulb is broad ovoid in shape; and by 

 the side of the old stick-like stem and well develo]3ed bulb that 

 is to flower next year may be traced the nascent bulb of the year 

 following-, so ihat ihe hulhs are in the ihhd year u-lien thei/ reach 

 the foverimj f!{ag<'. The subordinate bulbs thrown out ft'om the 

 base of the old ones are often lengthened out ujion rhizomes, and it 

 is this that is meant in the Synopsis, when the bulljs are said to be 

 stoloniferous, and it is upon the difference whether these accessory 

 bulbs are sessile or stalked, that the distinction between Eeboul and 

 Parlatore's " Tulipa3 Gregarite^^ and " Tulipa3 Erraticas^' depends. 



" In Calochortus the structure is similar to that of Tulipa, but the 

 inner tunics are fewer, and the outer thinner. In the IMexican 

 species of Calochortus the outer dry coats form a dense mass of 

 reticulated fibres, mixed with little cellular tissue, like those of Crocus 

 Vernus and C. Reticulatus. In Lloydia Serotina the outer coats are 

 thin, gTe_y, and membranous, and the inner coats so little thickened 

 that the bulbous dilatation at the base of the stem is very slight, and 

 we thus get an oblique rhizome-like bulb, similar to those of Allium 

 and Rhiziridium. But the essential structure is identical with that 

 of Tulipa, and it is said that, owing to the thinness and dryness of 

 the tunics, and the high Alpine stations in which the plant grows, 

 by careful dissection its history may be traced out for eight or ten 

 years. Here it has been clearly shown that the accessory basal 

 bulbs are sometimes sessile and sometimes stalked in one and the 

 same species, according to circumstances. 



(4). " In the section Gageopsis of Lloydia we have a fourth 

 modification of structure, a tunicafed covin. Here, as in Gagea, the 

 floriferous stem is nursed and nourished by the modified base of a 

 single leaf, which leaf is fresh and green at the time that the 

 floriferous stem is developed, springing, of course, from the tip of 

 the corm, whilst the stem arises close to it from a little on one side 

 the corm. In some species of Gagea the nascent corm of the 

 year following may be seen protruded from the side of the old corm 

 at the flowering time, already bearing a well develoj^ed leaf. This is 

 the case in the two-leaved species, like G. Arvensis. 



"In some other species it may be seen at the flowering time, but 

 does not grow out into a leaf, and in some others, as in our English 

 G. Lutea, it is invisible at the flowering time, and these have always 

 a solitary leaf. In Erythronium, also, the flower stem is nursed by 

 the much thickened base of a single leaf. In a newly discovered 

 American species a very remarkable kind of rhizome has lately been 

 figured and described by Dr. Asa Gray.* The corms are nearly half 

 .a foot deep, and a lateral offset springs from the base of the stem 

 * Americau Naturalist, July, 1871. 



