A Plant that Mklts Ice 



33 



inain imluirt by it. The food and fuel they have 

 <4atliered is stored partly in the tohai^e and partly 

 ill the swollen underi^round loot-stock. All winter 

 through, the plant is thus hidden under a compact 

 blanket of snow, which becomes gradually hard 

 and ice-like by pressure. But as soon as the 

 spring sun begins to melt the surface at the lower 



NO. I.— l.EAVKS OF SOI.nANF.l.l.A IN AUTUMN, FAT \VI IH FIKI . 

 SKKN FROM AHOVK. 



edge of the sheet, water trickles down tlirough 

 cracks in the ice, and sets the root-stock budding. 

 It produces, in fact, the very same effect as the 

 water which we pour upon malting barley in 

 order to make it germinate. And the same result 

 follows, though here more definitely, for the sol- 



C 



