144 



STRUCTURAL BOTANY 



If we dig up the whole plant and look at it closely, 

 we find the following structure : on the outside of the 

 bulb there are a number of broad, thick scales, each of 

 which has a blunt, withered tip. These scales (6, Fig. 

 54) are the persistent bases of the ground-leaves of the 

 year before. They are spirally arranged, and if we 



FIG. 53. Flowers of Lllium aura turn. From a photograph. 

 Reduced. 



remove them one by one, we find opposite the inner- 

 most of them the decayed base of last summer's 

 flowering stem (a, Fig. 54). After these scales are 

 removed, we come upon bud-scales of another kind ; 

 these are thick and fleshy like the former, but differ 

 from them in having pointed and uninjured tips (c, 

 Fig. 54). These scales are complete leaves which have 



