184 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LECT. IV. 



vessels run in longitudinal bundles through the 

 layers ; and so numerous are the spiral vessels in 

 this description of bulb, that, in the Amaryllis 

 tribe, the Squill, and some other of the larger 

 bulbs, on breaking a layer transversely, they may 

 be drawn out to the distance of three or four 

 inches ; and from the strength of their component 

 fibres and their number, they are capable of sup- 

 porting the pendulous portion of the layer. I 

 have also been informed that the fibres of the 

 spiral vessels of the bulb of some species of the 

 Blood-flower (Haemanthus) have been spun into 

 thread and manufactured, which I can readily be- 

 lieve, from the strength of a thread which I have 

 formed from the spiral fibres of the layer of a bulb 

 of Brunsvigia toxicaria, Poison- bulb, by merely 

 twisting them in my fingers. On making a trans- 

 verse, or a longitudinal section of the Hyacinth' 

 bulb, we find one or more young bulbs seated be- 

 tween the layers * ; and that one which is nearest 



cumference, to show its concavity ; d. young lateral bulbs, 

 which produce leaves, and si new bulb when detached from the 

 parent ; e. a bulb, which has produced leaves this season, formed 

 within the coats of the old bulb. 



* Vide Plate 3. fig. 8. and 9.-- Fig. 8. a. The caudex, as it 

 appears in the longitudinal section of a full-grown bulb of Hya- 

 cinthus orientalis ; b. a young bulb forming with the outermost 

 fleshy layer; c. the remains of the stem and foliage of the pre- 

 sent year's plant. Fig. 9. a transverse section of another b*lb 

 of the same species of plant, showing the terminations of the 



