24 RIVERBY 



How it gets there is well worth investigating. The 

 botany says the bulb is deep in the ground, but 

 offers no explanation. Now it is only the bulbs of 

 the older or flowering plants that are deep in the 

 ground. The bulbs of the young plants are near 

 the top of the ground. The young plants have but 

 one leaf, the older or flowering ones have two. If 

 you happen to be in the woods at the right time in 

 early April, you may see these leaves compactly 

 rolled together, piercing the matted coating of sear 

 leaves that covers the ground like some sharp- 

 pointed instrument. They do not burst their cov- 

 ering or lift it up, but pierce through it like an 

 awl. 



But how does the old bulb get so deep into the 

 ground ? In digging some of them up one spring in 

 an old meadow bottom, I had to cleave the tough 

 fibrous sod to a depth of eight inches. The smaller 

 ones were barely two inches below the surface. Of 

 course they all started from the seed at the sur- 

 face of the soil. The young botanist, or nature- 

 lover, will find here a field for original research. 

 If, in late May or early June, after the leaves of 

 the plant have disappeared, he finds the ground 

 where they stood showing curious, looping, twisting 

 growths or roots, of a greenish white color, let him 

 examine them. They are as smooth and as large 

 as an angle-worm, and very brittle. Both ends will 

 be found in the ground, one attached to the old 

 bulb, the other boring or drilling downward and en- 

 larged till it suggests the new bulb. I do not know 



