CHAPTER XVIII 



THE STOREHOUSES OF PLANTS NEW PLANTS FROM OLD PIECES 



THE STOREHOUSES OF PLANTS 



IT is quite evident from the fact that we can grow seedlings in saw- 

 dust or sand that seeds must have within them, material for building 

 up the bodies of young plants. Even if this were not easily deter- 

 mined, seeing that we eat beans and wheaten bread, they must 

 contain supplies of food, and the same is true of many tubers and 

 roots. We take advantage therefore of the stores of food, which 

 plants lay by for the immediate needs of their offspring or for their 

 own future use. It will not be an uninteresting pursuit to continue 

 in this connection the work suggested at the beginning of Chapter 

 X, for many plants' storehouses are situated under the soil. One 

 plant may produce a number of others, or merely form a single new 

 tuber or bulb for use during the following year, as in the case of the 

 bulbous buttercup and some of our native orchids. At the same 

 time it must not be forgotten that there are other storehouses above 

 ground ; for instance the swollen buds of the lily, which drop to the 

 earth and give rise to a new plant, grow from the bases of the leaves. 

 Visits also to greenhouses, in which foreign plants are grown, will 

 show that tubers and other swollen structures may be developed on 

 stems. The potato, even, sometimes forms tubers at the bases of 



