WHAT ARE BULBS? 21 



spring. Lilies go to rest immediately after flowering, and 

 seldom grow until late in the spring, except the white lily 

 {L. candidum) and its varieties, which make their growth 

 in the autumn preparatory to blooming in early summer. 

 Of this same nature are the many varieties of polyanthus 

 narcissus, and iris Susiana, one of the most beautiful of 

 the family, which in New England almost always make a 

 fall growth, and, unless very well protected, has the young 

 growth killed by the winter, and the bulb perishes. 



Some bulbs, of which the colchicum is the best example, 

 bloom late in the autumn, and perfect their growth of 

 foliage and the seed the folloAving spring. In some, as with 

 the well-known Jacobean lily (Sprehelia formosissima) and 

 Belladonna lily (Amaryllis Belladonna), the flower-stalk 

 springs from the naked bulb, and the growth of leaves 

 follows; while in others — as, for example, the tall white 

 star of Bethlehem {Ornithogalum pyramidale) — the flower- 

 stalk pushes up after the foliage has decayed. 



In many bulbs, as the hyacinth and narcissus, the flower- 

 stalk springs from the centre of the crown of leaves, on a 

 separate stalk; in others, as in* some amaryllis, it is pro- 

 duced from the side of the bulb, and the leaves from the 

 top : and these two modes of growth sometimes occur in the 

 same family. 



