STEMS. 69 



difference. The corm is one solid mass all through. 



o 



If you cut it, it will be like cutting through a potato. 

 The best plan will be to do so. If you can get the 

 corm of a crocus and the bulb of a snowdrop and cut 

 them across, you will not easily forget the difference 

 between them. But the corm is sometimes spoken of 

 as a solid bulb.* 



Somewhat of the same nature is a tuber.^ It is a 

 thick and fleshy mass or plant stock which produces 

 a bud, or buds, from which grows the new plant, root 

 downwards, and stem, leaves, and flowers upwards. 

 If you can dig up carefully a potato plant in full 

 growth, you will see underground stems with these 

 swellings, or tubers, upon them very plainly. We 

 commonly call them the potatoes. I dare say you 

 have noticed the buds, or " eyes " as they are called, 

 upon a potato tuber. If, in the spring, you look at 

 one which has been kept for planting, you will see the 

 buds sprouting, and stem, and leaves, and roots of the 

 new potato plant beginning to appear. 



* cf. Meadow Saffron (Fig. 13, p. 16), Gladiolus, Colchicum, Crocus. 

 f From the Latin " tuber" a bump, a swelling, a knob. 



