182 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LECT. IV. 



tinues to keep pace with the enlargement of the 

 offspring 1 , until the layers are completely emp- 

 tied. They then decay away, and leave the stem 

 partially covered with the void cuticles on the 

 outside of the new bulb *. The stem itself, with 

 the old radical plate, next die away ; while the 

 new bulb, after remaining as it were in a state 

 of inactivity during the winter, shoots out fresh 

 roots from its radical plate in the spring, and runs 

 the same course as its predecessor. Under fa- 

 vourable circumstances, two or three new bulbs 

 are sometimes formed in the same season ; but these 

 are usually only leaf bulbs -f~. 



In long-rooted Allium (Alliurn victor tails) the 

 concentric sheathing layers (each of which, as in 

 several other species of the genus, is expanded 

 into a leaf) are of a reticulated texture^; and 



* Fig. 6. a longitudinal section of a Tulip bulb, during the 

 flowering season, a. Section of the stem ; b. the remains of 

 the old bulb ; c. the new flower bulb enveloped in d. its sheath or 

 exterior coat ; e. the rudiment of the caudex of the new bulb, 

 where it separated from the parent stem. 



-p Plate 3. fig. 4. a bulb of the common Tulip taken up in 

 the flowering season, a. Part of the stem, which is cut off; 

 b. the exterior layers of the exhausted bulb, enveloping both 

 the new flower bulb c. and an offset, or lateral leaf bulb, the 

 stem from which is seen at d. 



t Fig. 2. a bulb of long-rooted Allium. a. The outer layer 

 of the present year's bulb, extended into the sheathing stem ; 

 b. the reticulated layers, loose both at the caudex c. and 

 above ; d. the roots of the existing bulb piercing the network 

 of the reticulated layers. 



