90 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



slightest wind, scatter on the ground, and are hence- 

 forth given over to their own resources. If the sea- 

 son is a wet one, many of them, still in place at the 

 axils of the leaves, send out one or two little roots 

 that hang in the air as if trying to reach the ground. 

 Before October arrives all the buds have fallen. 

 Then the mother stalk dies. Soon the autumn winds 

 and rains cover the scattered buds with dead leaves 

 and mold. Under this shelter they swell all winter 

 from the juices of their scales, plunge their roots into 

 the ground little by little, and, behold, in the spring 

 each one displays its first green leaf, continues 

 henceforth its independent growth, and finally be- 

 comes a plant like the original lily. 



"The fleshy, scaly buds destined to develop inde- 

 pendently of the mother stalk are called bulblets. 

 No plant known to agriculture could furnish us so 

 striking' an example of bud-emigration as the bulbif- 

 erous lily ; but in our kitchen gardens we have garlic, 

 which acts in almost the same way. Take a whole 

 head of garlic. On the outside are dry, white wrap- 

 pings. Strip these off and underneath you will find 

 large buds which can easily be detached one by one. 

 Then come more white wrappings followed by new 

 buds, so that the entire head is a package of alter- 

 nate wrappings and buds. 



' ' These wrappings are the dried-up lower portions 

 of the old leaves of the plant, leaves blanched where 

 the soil covered them, and where they still remain, 

 and formerly green where exposed to the air, though 

 that part is now lacking. In the axils of these leaves 



