AND THEIR CULTUEE. 193 



§ 11. " The origin of a Lily bulb is a germ or seed-bud.* Nature causes 

 Ihis to grow or vegetate the first year, to bloom the second year, and then it 

 dies, leaves, stem, scales, and roots, idl perish. Such is the short span of the 

 ■existence of a Lily bulb. If a bulb that has flowered is taken up, say late 

 in the autumn, and cut in two, vertically, it will be seen that it has, 

 within itself, three distinct generations, that is, a portion of the parent 

 hulb,f which has flowered, the whole of a new hulh, which Xatui^e destined 

 to flower the following year, and a germ or seed-bud, which was intended 

 to grow up a full-sized bulb, and flower in the next year but one. At this 

 time, the autumn, the seed will be so minute, as not to be perceptible 

 -^vithont the aid of a magnifying glass, but, if a similar bulb be taken up in 

 January next, and dissected, the seed-bud will then be perceptible to the 

 naked eye, as it will be about the size of a canary seed, and will, if the 

 •scales are picked off" carefully, be found in the axil between the inmost 

 fleshy scale and the base of the new flower stem. In Febrnarv, it will be 

 six or eight times larger, and vv'ill continue to grow, until, in the next 

 •autumn, it will be found to be as large as the new hidb was, at the same 

 "time in the previous year. By a very simple experiment, it may thus be 

 proved that the old hidb of this year, alter having flowered, and after 

 'having all the sap absorbed from its scales for the nourishment of the new 

 hull), decays and dies. In like manner, its successor, the new bulb, flowers 

 the next year, decays and dies. And so on, one generation following the 

 other, year after year, all having emanated from germs or seed-buds. 

 Then, how can it be said with truth, that " the bulb, which has flowered, 

 has ever flowered before r " Or with what truth can it be said that "the bulb, 

 that has flowered one year, will ever flower again r " I cut open a bulb last 

 month (Januar}', 1877) ; it is now considerably decayed by exposure, but 

 €till may be seen the seed-bud at the base between the scales, and a portion 

 of the new flower stem. 1 have also a portion of a bulb I took up only 

 two days ago (February) : it is a very fine fi-esh specimen, as I was 

 careful in picking ofl" the scales. At the base of the flower stem, which 

 ■was destined to flower this year, may be seen the seed-bud, eiuht or ten 

 times larger than in the preceding specimen, showing the comparatively 

 large increase in growth which it has made in only one month. This 

 seed-bud was destined to become a full grown bulb, and flower in IS 78. 



§12. "The plan that I adopted in order to trace the progress of the seed 

 bud as it grew up into a fully formed bulb was this. In October, 1873, I 

 lifted some fifty thoroughly matured bulbs, and replanted them in a piece 

 of spare ground. In January, I commenced by taking up two or three, 

 cutting the bulbs vertically in two, and otherwise dissecting them for the 



* For my olyection to the term seed-buJ, see page 1S7. 



t Dunedin has here put a too limited meaning to the use of the word " bulb." Lilv 

 growers, and the public geneially, in common parlance, when speaking of Lilies, or other 

 bulbs, flowering year after yi'ai-, include in the term "bulb " both old and new growths, 

 roots, stem, if any, sometimes flower, in fact, the whole plant. It may not be strictly 

 accurate, but it is the case. Dunedin, however, frec^uently restncts the meanin'^ of the 

 ■word " bidb " to scales oidy, excluding roots, stem, and rhizome. 



I have, therefore, italicised the word "bidb " wherever, it seems to me, it is used in a 

 ■restricted sense, and, if my readers will, in their own minds, there substitute the word 

 ■"growth" for "bulb," I think Dunedin's meaning will be made more clear. 



