CHAPTER XI 



BULBOUS PLANTS OF DIFFERENT SEASONS 



IT is not the large and conspicuous plants with 

 massive blooms that cross the threshold of 

 spring, but rather the tremulous ones whose 

 air is that of having come from a fairy's revel. Yet 

 these first comers that break through the crust of winter 

 are inwardly as stalwart as the flamboyant flowers 

 living under the midsummer sun. 



In this chapter many plants are referred to under 

 the general heading of "bulbous plants," but it is 

 not to be understood that each and every one of them 

 springs from a true bulb. They are, nevertheless, all 

 sold by bulb dealers, and are placed together here 

 more for convenience than to follow the dictates of 

 botanists. While to the mind of the latter, knowing 

 a, crocus to come from a corm, it is an offense to hear 

 it spoken of as a bulb, the distinction is thought unneces- 

 sary by either the gardener or the dealer. 



Gladioli are not produced by bulbs, although they 

 are advertised and bought as such. They have at 

 their base a corm. Many irises have rhizomes as their 

 seat of life, while the English and Spanish varieties 

 spring from bulbs. Neither these plants nor lilies 

 have been treated in this chapter because consider- 

 .able space has been given to them elsewhere. 



[HI] 



