HYACINTH BULBS. 73 



abortive leaves, or thick fleshy scales. In these sub- 

 terranean leaves the plant stores up the food- stuffs 

 elaborated by its green portions during the summer ; 

 and there they lie the whole winter through, ready to 

 send up a flowering stem early in the succeeding 

 spring. The material in the old bulb is used up in thus 

 producing leaves and blossoms at the beginning of 

 the second or third season ; but fresh bulbs grow out 

 -anew from its side, and in these the plant once more 

 stores up fresh material for the succeeding year's 

 growth. 



The hyacinths which we keep in glasses on our 

 .mantelpieces represent such a reserve of three or four 

 years' accumulation. They have purposely been pre- 

 vented from flowering, in order to make them pro- 



duce finer trusses of bloom when they are at length 

 permitted to follow their own free will. Thus the 

 -bulb contains material enough to send up leaves and 

 blossoms from its own resources; and it will do so 

 even if grown entirely in the dark. In that case the 

 leaves will be pale yellow or faintly greenish, because 

 the true green pigment, which is the active agent of 

 digestion, can only be produced under the influence 

 of light ; whereas the flowers will retain their proper 



colour, because their pigment is always due to oxida- 

 tion alone, and is but little dependent upon the rays 

 of sunshine. Even if grown in an ordinary room, 

 .away from the window, the leaves seldom assume 

 their proper deep tone of full green ; they are mainly 

 dependent on the food-stuffs laid by in the bulb, and 



