34 



FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



tlanclla has collected its material deliberately 

 fuel, and uses it up on purpose to melt its passage. 

 It absorbs oxygen from the air below the snow, 

 combines it with the fuels in its own substance, 

 evolves heat from their combination, and begins to 

 send up its nodding flower-buds through the icy 



sheet that spreads 

 above it. 



The warmth 

 the plant obtains 

 by this curious 

 process of slow 

 internal combus- 

 tion it first em- 

 ploys to melt a 

 little round hole 

 in the ice for its 

 arched flower- 

 buds (No. 2). At 

 the beginning, the 

 hollow which is 

 formed above each 

 pair of buds is 

 hemispherical or 

 dome-shaped ; the 

 stem pushes its 



way up through a dome of air enclosed in the 

 ice ; and the water it liberates trickles down to the 

 root, thus helping to supply moisture for further 

 growth with its consequent heating. But by-and- 

 by the stem lengthens, and the bud is raised to 

 a considerable height by its continuous growth. 



NO. 2. BUD BEGINNING TO MELT ITS 

 WAY UP THROUGH ICE IN A DOME- 

 SHAPED HOLLOW. 



