232 LETTER XIX. 



language is made use of. In one respect, the bulb 

 differs essentially from a bud : it is not a perishable 

 part, intended merely as a protection to the young 

 and tender vital point, from which new growth is to 

 take place : this indeed is a part of its object, but it 

 also serves as a copious reservoir of nutritive matter 

 upon which the young leaves and flowers feed. On 

 this account its scales are not thin and easily withered 

 up, as in a common bud, but succulent, and capable 

 of retaining their moisture during^ lono- and severe 

 drought. In this we again see a direct manifestation 

 of the all protecting care of the Deity ; for bulbous 

 plants are generally natives of situations which at 

 certain seasons of the year are quite dried up, and 

 where all vegetation would perish if it were not for 

 some such provision as we find in the bulb ; in places 

 like the hard dry Karroos of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 where rain falls only for three months in the year, in 

 the parched plains of Barbary, where the ground is 

 rarely refreshed by showers, except in the winter, and 

 on the most burning shores of tropical India, beyond 

 the reach of tlie tide, and buried in sand, the tempe- 

 rature of which often rises to 180°, bulbous rooted 

 plants are enabled to live, and enliven such scenes 

 with their periodical beauty. 



You must not, however, imagine, either that all 

 the Asphodel tribe have bulbs, or that all bulbs 

 belong to the Asphodel tribe ; of the inaccuracy of 

 the latter notion you must already be aware, if you 

 remember the Narcissus tribe ; the former would be 

 not less a mistake ; all that 1 meant, in thus connect- 



