Leaves and Their Work 145 



But, it may be said, seeds, most of tliem, begin to 

 grow in darkness, underground, and so do bulbs; and they 

 are usually pale yellow at first. If they have no leaf- 

 green, as they evidently have not, then, if cells cannot be 

 multiplied without carbon, and carbon they cannot get for 

 want of this leaf-green, how do they manage to grow? 



In the same way that other plants do which are also 

 without leaf-green. They make use of the carbon stored 

 by others; that is to say, they live for a time seedlings, 

 upon the material stored in their seeds — bulbs, upon the 

 material stored in the bulbs, which are buds, not roots — 

 all of which has been prepared by means of leaf-green, 

 and in the light. 



In the case of bulbs, the leaves go on collecting food 

 long after the plants have done flowering, in readiness for 

 the blossoms of the next spring; and if the leaves are cut 

 off before they have finished their work, the bulbs shrivel, 

 and have not the means of supplying next year's blossoms 

 at all. The autumn crocus comes up and blossoms 

 without its leaves, but it is dependent upon them for the 

 means of putting forth its blossoms, for the leaves have 

 been busy months before, in the spring, storing the neces- 

 sary material in the bulbs. 



Seedlings, in like manner, when first they germinate 

 under the soil, before they are provided with leaf-green, 

 live upon the food stored up within them; but if, when 

 this is exhausted, they are still kept in darkness, they will 

 not only remain yellow, but will lose instead of gain 

 in weight, and that though their roots may be busy col- 

 lecting food from the soil. 



But why, it may be asked, should they lose in weight? 

 Without carbon they cannot, of course, use the food from 



