SPRING CROCUSES 71 



be double, a narrow pointed bract springing from 

 the inside of the outer tubular one. Both are united 

 to the flower-stalk beneath the ovary. 



I will leave you to make out the structure of 

 the Crocus-flower, which the common manuals of 

 Botany will help you to do, if you require help 

 at all. Let us carry the life-history a stage or two 

 further. After flowering, the foliage-leaves remain 

 active for several months, and fill the young 

 corm with food. All parts of the flowers, except 

 the slowly-ripening ovaries, wither away. By the 

 end of June or the beginning of July, the seeds 

 are ripe, the seed vessel raises itself from the ground, 

 opens its valves, and the seeds are dispersed. Then 

 the foliage-leaves turn brown, the roots wither, and 

 the plant enters upon its resting-stage. 



There is now no outward sign of change or growth. 

 Hardly anything is taken in or given out for months 

 together, and the corm seems dead. Dead it is not, 

 however, for during this resting-stage, and especially 

 in the earlier part of it, next year's corm is matured. 

 This looks like a new plant, budded out from the old 

 one ; but it is really only the enlarged base of a 

 branch the branch upon which the leaves and 

 flowers of the preceding spring were borne. In 

 summer the leaves and flowers wither, and the branch 

 dies down to the enlarged base. This does not wither, 

 but absorbs the nutritive substance of the old corm. 

 and at length completely replaces it, being provided 

 with a new set of tunics, and later on with a new set 

 of roots. 



Other branches may form within the lower leaves, 



