AND THEIR CULTUKE. 201 



than a pea may during- the ensuing- summer send up above the soil a 

 slender stalk a few inches in length bearing- what may be called a seed- 

 leaf, but this identical offset will never send up another stalky this 

 becomes the duty of its offspring-, the successioual bulbule. Nature 

 causes this operation to be repeated season after season, each successioual 

 bulbule growing larger than its progenitor, until a fully developed 

 flowering bulb is the result. If any of the successioual bulbules be care- 

 fully examined it will be seen that the stalks or stems of the preceding 

 season did not emanate from them. De Candolle has said, ' If we desire 

 to know more of the plant life in its higher bearings, we must live with, 

 and observe the cycle of plant growth in all its stages, from the germina- 

 tion of the seed to the full development of the fruits.' For myself, I can 

 truly say, that I have almost literally complied with this injunction. For 

 many years I have lived with, and have been in the habit of watching the 

 underground life of the Lily, from the most minute seed bud, and the 

 smallest offset, to their full development as flowering bulbs, and even 

 after that. In order to do this satisfactorily, I have planted, from time to 

 time, in distant places, hundreds of offsets, as well as fully developed 

 bulbs, and have watched their progress, winter and summer, by taking 

 up a portion now and then for examination by dissection or otherwise. 

 The result of this has been to me full coufirmaiion that no individual offset, 

 lulbule, or juliij developed bulb lives for another seuson after having once 

 sent up a stalk or a jiowcring stem. Take a bulblet in the autumn 

 that has been produced on a bulb bearing stem, and carefully cut 

 it open, at the very core will be found a seed-bud, in every respect 

 similar to one that will be found in a flowering bulb, in the axil 

 formed by the inner scale and the base of the flower stem. In the 

 case of the bulblet it will take more than three years before its suc- 

 cessioual bulbule is sufficiently developed to throw up a stem that will 

 bear even one flower. In the other case, the seed-bud, which is con- 

 tained within the flowering bulb, will not take more than twenty months 

 before it blooms, possibly more perfectly than its parent did before it. 

 How is this r" The seed-bud in the fully developed bulb is nourished by that 

 bulb as its parent, and its growth is consequently so stimulated that in eight 

 months from its germination it is shooting down strong healthy roots,. 

 3 or 4 inches in length, mixed up with those of its parent, and through 

 these, its own roots it receives additional nourishment, while the parent 

 bulb continues still to nourish its offspring for some time longer. All 

 this time the little bulblet is left to starve or provide for itself. What 

 can it do, for it is still alive ? In order to preserve its life nature directs 

 it to send down two or three slender feelers in the shape of thread-like 

 roots, in search of such food as the soil can suppl}', and such as is fit for it 

 in a young- state. Its further progress, until not it, but its successioual 

 bulbule, has arrived at a state of full development, I have already described 

 when treating of the progress of an offset, for an offset, if carefully dis- 

 sected, will also be found to be possessed of a similar seed-bud. It is 

 from a cai-eful study of this part of the subject that we learn that an 

 offset or bulblet has to go through a distinct and different stage or 

 transformation every year for a length of time, before it can arrive at the 



