A PLANT THAT MELTS ICE 



33 



main unhurt by it. The food and fuel they have 

 gathered is stored partly in the foliage and partly 

 in the swollen underground root-stock. All winter 

 through, the plant is thus hidden under a compact 

 blanket of snow, which becomes gradually hard 

 and ice-like by pressure. But as soon as the 

 spring sun begins to melt the surface at the lower 



NO. I. LEAVES OF SOLDANELLA IN AUTUMN. FAT WITH FUEL, 

 SEEN FROM ABOVE. 



edge of the sheet, water trickles down through 

 cracks in the ice, and sets the root-stock budding. 

 It produces, in fact, the very same effect as the 

 water which we pour upon malting barley in 

 order to make it germinate. And the same result 

 follows, though here more definitely, for the sol- 



C 



