NATURE STUDIES. 69 



HYACINTH BULBS. 



BY GRANT ALLEN. 



TF we were not so familiar with the fact, we would 

 .think there were few queerer things in nature than 

 the mode of growth followed by this sprouting hya- 

 cinth bulb on my mantelpiece here. It is simply 

 .stuck in a glass stand, filled with water, and there, 

 with little aid from light or sunshine, it goes through 

 its whole development, like a piece of organic clock- 

 work as it is, running down slowly in its own 

 .appointed course. For a bulb does not grow as an 

 ordinary plant grows, solely by means of carbon 

 -derived from the air under the influence of sunlight. 

 What we call its growth we ought rather to call its 

 unfolding. It contains within itself everything that 

 is necessary for its own vital processes. Even if I 

 were to cover it up entirely, or put it in a warm, dark 

 room, it would sprout and unfold itself in exactly the 

 same way as it does here in the diffused light of my 

 study. The leaves, it is true, would be blanched and 

 .almost colourless, but the flowers would be just as 

 .brilliantly blue as these which are now scenting the 

 whole room with their delicious fragrance. The 

 question is, then, how can the hyacinth thus live and 

 grow without the apparent aid of sunlight, on which 

 .all vegetation is ultimately based ? 



Of course, an ordinary plant, as everybody knows, 



