CORMS 263 



When fully grown the stalk separates from the tuber. 

 If left in the ground over the winter, the eyes grow out 

 next year into the aerial " haulms " of new potato 

 plants. Roots (" adventitious roots ") are produced 

 from the base of the haulm just above the point at 

 which it springs from the tuber. 



Corms. This name is given to a local thickening at 

 the base of the erect aerial shoot, which carries the life 

 of the plant from one growing season to the next. At 

 the end of the growing season the aerial shoot dies 

 and falls off, leaving a scar on the top of the corm, 

 which remains dormant during the autumn and winter, 

 and produces new aerial shoots from axillary buds in 

 the next growing season. The garden Crocus is an 

 excellent example. 



In the autumn, when the corm is " ripe " and ready 

 for planting out, it is a rounded structure flattened 

 at top and bottom and covered with thin brown 

 membranous scales, which are inserted along horizontal 

 lines encircling the corm and appearing as brown 

 circular scars when the scales are stripped off. In a 

 large vigorous corm there are two or three stout buds 

 covered with white scales and projecting through the 

 brown covering at the top of the corm. These can 

 be seen to spring from the axils of the brown scales 

 around the apical scar left by the detachment of the 

 aerial shoot. Sometimes there are smaller buds on the 

 sides of the corm in the axils of lower scales. 



When the corm is planted, a circle of roots, the be- 

 ginnings of which are already 'laid down in the ripe 

 corm, first grow out, and growth soon begins in the 

 axillary buds, which produce the green shoots that 

 push up through the soil in February and flower in 

 March. The rudiments of the foliage leaves and flowers 



