86 OF THE ROOT, 



6. Radix bulbosa. A Bulbous Root, properly so 

 called, is either solid, f. 13, as in Crocus, Lria, 

 Gladiolus, &c.; tunicate,/! 14, tunicata, composed 

 of concentric layers enveloping one another as in 

 Attium, the Onion tribe; or scaly,/. 15, consisting 

 of fleshy scales connected only at their base, as in 

 Lilium, the White or Orange Lily. The two latter 

 kinds have the closest analogy with leaf-buds. They 

 are reservoirs of the vital powers of the plant during 

 the season when those powers are torpid or latent, 

 and in order to perform the functions of roots, they 

 first produce fibres, which are the actual roots. The 

 strict affinity between bulbs and buds appears from 

 the scaly buds formed on the stem of the Orange 

 Lily, Lilium bulbiferum, which fall to the ground, 

 and, throwing out fibres from their base, become 

 bulbous roots*. The same thing happens in Den- 

 taria bulbifera, Engl. Bot. t. 309, and Saxifraga 

 cernua, t. 664. 



These two last-mentioned plants however have 

 scaly roots, like the Tooth wort, Lathrcea Squamaria, 

 t. 50, which seern bulbs lengthened out. Whether 

 they would, in the torpid season of the year, bear 

 removal, like bulbs, we have no information. If dis- 

 turbed at other times they are immediately killed. 



* I have had scaly buds form even on the flower-stalk of Lachenalia 

 tricolor, Curt. Mag. t. 82, whilst lying for many weeks between papers 

 to dry, which, on being put into the ground, have become perfect plants, 

 though of slow growth. 



