AND THETR CULTURE. 199 



■raeanwliile, however, a successor is growing" up witliin the original offset 

 in the same manner as the legitimate seed-bud or bulbule is growing up 

 Avithin a fully developed adult bulb, with this exception, that, every season, 

 Nature clothes the succcessional offset bulbule with new and more 

 numerous scales, the original offset not having had a covering of more 

 than some six or eight scales, according to the class of Lily to which it 

 belonged. The first appearance from the offset above ground is not a 

 •stem, but generally one or two leaves attached to a long slender stalk 

 or petiole. If lifted out of the ground, the offset will be found to be 

 possessed of slender rootlets, these having been protruded from the base 

 of the ofisets before the leaf and its stalk began to rise, or, indeed, before 

 there was the slightest appearance of their rising. The next season we 

 see in a bed that has been originally planted with genuine offsets a very 

 slight stem shooting up, furnished with a few leaves. This is a sign that 

 a germ in the centre of the original offset has vegetated into a seed-bud ; 

 for without the presence of a seed-bud thei'e can be no real stem. The 

 next season the stems will appear larger and more fully developed, and 

 the bulbules, if dug up, will be found to be also larger, with more scales, 

 and with new and more numerous roots — the site of the decayed stems 

 and roots of the previous season being distinctly visible on all the 

 bulbules. This process goes on year after year until the bulbule, which 

 may now be called a fully developed bulb, produces a flower-bearing stem. 

 All this is, to the Lily grower, worthy of the most attentive study, as the 

 iirst thing that must strike the reflecting mind, is the harmony that exists, 

 an what we ai-e permitted to contemplate in the Lily, namely, the singular 

 .similarity in the organisation of all the kinds that are really true Lilies. 

 With respect to the little bulbs, while only small offsets, they have by 

 some been called side-buds by way of contra-distinction, and have also been 

 •called the principal reproducers of their class. Now, some of them may 

 be called side-buds, though more properly small offsets, but they all differ 

 widely from the true legitimate reproducers — the central seed-buds. The 

 central or legitimate seed-buds are growing up, not at the side, but in the 

 very centre of the parent htdbs, and will, most certainly, without changing 

 their identity, flower the season after the parent bulbs have bloomed, 

 unless something unforeseen should happen to them ; that is, they will 

 germinate, grow up, bloom, decay, and die, all within two years ; while 

 the side-buds or little offsets, which have no fixed place for their appearance 

 at any time, will change their identity, by being transformed by a new 

 creation every year, arid will not take less than thi-ee or four years before 

 they can, through their transformed successors, develop flower-bearing 

 stems. These side-buds or little offsets are the means which Nature has 

 placed in our hands for the purpose of propagating and multiplying the 

 species, but not for the purpose of reproducing that which is lost, namely, 

 the parent bulb, or the bidb of the previous season. The reproduction of 

 that bulb is due alone to the central seed-bud ; for this bud, the instant it 

 has germinated, is provided with all the organs of vegetation that the 

 full-grown Lily possesses, and is, in fact, a miniature resemblance of an 

 adult bulb. This should teach us that if we desire to ascertain whether a 

 plant is a true Lily or not, we should carefully examine the organic 



