422 TRANSACTIONS AND PliOCEEDINGS OF THE [Skss. Lxvm. 



No scales were detected on its basal pfjrtion, and no 

 distinct bulb was differentiated on it at its termination, 

 but a small circle of pointed scales was seen closely applied 

 to and converging near the tip, which is visible beneath them 

 smooth and rounded. In other more advanced specimens 

 the form of the growing process is distinctly bulbous, and 

 its enlargement is seen to have taken place almost entirely 

 on the external aspect, as indicated by the scale-tips being 

 few and distinct from one another, compared with those on 

 its inner aspect. The direction of the scales is evidently 

 downwards on the external surface, but through excessive 

 growth of that part by an interstitial hypertrophy of the 

 concrete bases of the scales, the direction of the free tips 

 of these organs becomes gradually changed towards the 

 distal end of the bud, so that as the bulb enlarges the 

 terminal scales, though still holding the same position 

 relative to the part to which they are attached, and the 

 same direction relative to the apex of the bud, come to 

 point upwards. The axis of the bud has thus been turned 

 completely round, so that its apex instead of being the 

 lowermost point of the young shoot, is now the uppermost 

 point of the new bulb. The process gone through is 

 similar to that seen in the development of the anatropous 

 ovule, and the result is that the terminal scales of the bud 

 springing from the rootstock now form the apical bud of 

 the bulb, situated close to its point of origin, and imme- 

 diately below the parent stock. Here, then, is evident 

 provision for the next year's stem, and proof that the bulb 

 is the dormant bud, which, though in its turn also perish- 

 ing, continues the life of the plant from one season of 

 activity to the next. 



In B. crythrorhiza (its flowering season past) the same 

 structural arrangements are seen, even more neatly defined. 

 The bulb is more dense in its consistence, and deeply 

 coloured to its centre, while the great number of thin 

 scales in which it is closely wrapped shows that many 

 years must have passed since the annual budding from the 

 original rootstock first began. The lateral process or 

 pedicel connecting it with the rootstock continues slender 

 and rounded, and the globular bulb is somewhat flattened 

 vertically, while the reversed scales are collected together 



