n6 



THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



As in the Buttercup, the main stem and each branch ends in a 

 flower. All these parts require to be examined in detail. 



The root system consists of a number of roots springing, 

 not from a main root, but from the base of the stem. The slender 

 branched roots that extend into the soil around, and obtain from 

 it the water and salts needed by the plant, call for no special 

 description. The storage roots, which form a cluster diverging 

 from the base of the plant, are more or less numerous, according 

 to the size and strength of the latter. They are unbranched, 



club-shaped bodies, widening 

 gradually from the point of 

 attachment to the stem. In a 

 plant examined in May two sets 

 of these tuberous roots can be 

 distinguished. One group con- 

 sists of fully grown roots of a 

 brown colour. Many of these 

 have a wrinkled or shrivelled 

 appearance. The roots of the 

 other set, which appear to 

 spring from a slightly higher 

 level of the stem, are plump 

 and firm, often whitish, and 

 not fully grown. The older 

 roots are those in which the food, which has been used up in the 

 growth of the shoot and flowers of the plant, was stored. Their 

 use is now over, since, as the wrinkled appearance indicates, they 

 have been depleted of the substances stored in them and they will 

 perish and decay as the season advances. The new series of 

 tuberous roots will be stored with food material during the early 

 part of the summer, and when the shoots die down will remain 

 in the soil until growth again starts at the expense of the food 

 they contain. 



In most cases a single bud develops into the leafy shoot of 

 the plant. In specimens examined very early in the year this 

 will be found in an unexpanded condition. As it unfolds it is 

 seen that on the outside are several whitish scale leaves and 

 following them come a number of foliage-leaves, which are borne 



FIG. 60. Whole plant of the Lesser Celan- 

 dine, in flower. (After Farmer.) 



