PLANTS AND WATER 145 



of the rains. Everything is almost complete, 

 and is ready to push above the ground at a 

 few days', or even a few hours', notice. 



This form of response to periods of drought, 

 namely the capacity to store up food, and 

 even water, is very widespread, but one must 

 not imagine that all bulbous plants are to be 

 looked on as xerophytes, though the bulbous 

 habit undoubtedly does confer on its possessor 

 the power or faculty of colonising localities 

 such as those just indicated. Many of our 

 spring woodland plants are bulbous or 

 tuberous ; but in their case it is not so much 

 a question of drought as one of light. 



The bulbous character of the wild hyacinth, 

 for example, enables it to thrive in shady 

 woods, even under beech and hornbeam, for, 

 like its relatives in the open field, it is provided 

 with a large stock of available food in the 

 bulb scales, which was manufactured and 

 stored up during the preceding spring. 

 When the warm weather returns after the 

 winter the hyacinths rapidly sprout, and their 

 green leaves are fully exposed to the light. 

 Later on, however, as the trees unfold their 

 leaves the light soon weakens, and little or 

 no photosynthesis can go on under the dense 

 shade of a beech wood. But by this time the 

 plants have done their work, and have already 

 laid up a stock of food for the following year. 

 Their leaves die down, and only the ripening 

 seed capsules reveal their presence in the 

 wood. 



