HOW PLANTS DEINK. 77 



root stocks ; the bulbous wild hyacinth, the 

 tuberous meadow orchid, and the common arum, 

 or "lords and ladies," with its starchy root, very 

 rich in food-stuffs. Indeed, in every case where 

 a plant flowers very early in spring, you may be 

 sure the material for its flowering was laid up 

 by the plant in the previous year that it is 

 really rather a case of delated than of very early 

 flowering. 



This is especially true of trees, like the black- 

 thorn or the flowering almond, where the flower- 

 buds are usually formed over winter, and only 

 fully developed in the succeeding spring. The 

 same thing happens with gorse ; only here, a 

 few bushes always break into bloom in October 

 or November, while others burst spasmodically 

 into blossom whenever a warm and sunny spell 

 occurs in January or February. The remaining 

 bushes are covered through the winter with 

 hairy brown buds, and burst out in early spring 

 into golden masses of scented blossom. A like 

 arrangement also occurs in many catkins, which 

 are the flowers of certain trees ; the catkins of 

 the birch and the alder, for example, are always 

 formed in early autumn, though they only break 

 into bloom with recurring warmth in March or 

 April. 



We have travelled away so far from our 

 original question of How plants drink, that a 

 summary of this chapter is even more necessary 

 than usual. 



Plants drink by means of roots. But they 

 take up by them, not only water, which is their 



