CHAP. II. GEMS. 63 



The following are the varieties of the radical Varieties, 

 bulb as enumerated by botanists. 1. The solid 

 bulb (PL III. Fig. I.), which consists of an entire 

 and homogeneous mass of a firm and compact tex- 

 ture, as in the case of Crocus sativus and Gladiolus 

 communis ; though not in that of the Tulip, which 

 has been often quoted as an example of this variety 

 of bulb upon the authority even of Linnaeus. But 

 the remark has obviously originated in a mistake, as 

 a very slight inspection will be sufficient to show. 

 2. The coated bulb (PL III. Fig. 2.), which con- 

 sists of a succession of concave and concentric 

 layers, enveloping and enveloped by one another, as 

 in the bulb of the onion. In A Ilium victor ale the 

 coats, or layers, are so beautifully reticulated as to 

 resemble a piece of fine and close net-work. 3. The 

 scaly bulb (PL III. Fig. 3.), which consists of an 

 assemblage of fleshy scales tiled one above another, 

 but united only at the base, as in the bulb of the 

 genus Lilium. 4. The lateral bulb, in which the 

 shoot is protruded not from the apex or upper ex- 

 tremity, as is generally the case, but from the 

 one side, as in A Ilium Ampeloprasum.* 5. The 

 double bulb, which consists of two single bulbs 

 united together, as in the case of Fritillaria pyre- 

 naica^\ 6. The compound bulb, which consists of 

 several individual bulbs united together, as in the 

 case of A Ilium nigrum.\ 



* Wid. Princ. Bot. p. 60, t Ibid. + Ibid. 



