n8 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



the end of the season, when the flowering shoots die down, there 

 is left in the soil the group of tuberous roots in relation to the buds 

 at the base of the stem, and above them this bud or buds. Nor- 

 mally the whole group of storage roots is subordinated to the 

 requirements of the single bud growing into the new shoot, and 

 the small bud at the base of each root-tuber does not develop. 



Should, however, a root-tuber become detached from the plant, 

 it carries with it the small bud from the base of which it sprang. 

 Under these conditions, which must often happen in nature, 

 the root-tuber serves as a means of giving rise to a new individual, 

 and thus reproducing the plant vegetatively. The plant is of 

 course small, and usually only puts up a single foliage-leaf and 

 forms one new tuber, but in the course of years grows larger, 

 forms more numerous tubers, and then sends up a flowering 

 shoot. Young plants developed from separated root -tubers are 

 constantly found in the neighbourhood of the larger plants. 



On plants growing in shady situations tuberous storage roots 

 are often developed in connection with buds in the axils of the 

 leaves higher up on the flowering shoot. In these cases the 

 relation of the storage root to the bud is readily made out, and 

 since the buds, each attached to a root filled with food material, 

 are necessarily isolated by the decay of the shoot and scattered on 

 the surface of the soil, the plant may be largely spread in this 

 way. 



The construction of the underground parts of the Lesser 

 Celandine thus stands in relation, in the first place, to the con- 

 tinuance of the individual plant from year to year, and secondly, 

 to the vegetative reproduction of the plant. Apart from the 

 growth of new plants from seeds, this can take place : (i) by the 

 production from a plant of more than one flowering shoot each of 

 which will form its own group of tubers at the base ; (ii) by the 

 detachment of root-tubers from the base of a plant ; (iii) by the 

 natural isolation of the root-tubers formed higher up on the 

 shoot. While the increase in size of the areas occupied by the 

 plant may be assisted in all three ways, the spread of the plant 

 to any distance is most likely to be effected vegetatively by the 

 tubers formed on the aerial shoots. 



The position of the flowers at the end of the main stem and 



