144 WAYSIDE WEEDS. 



bulb, and is also classed as an underground stem. 

 The common house-leek (Fig. 90), wLich delights 

 to grow on old thatch, and delights the old lady of 

 the thatched cottage by so doing, is essentially a 

 bulb-stem with open scales, but it grows above- 

 ground as an honest stem should do. The hya- 

 cinth, hkewise a true bulb-stem, will grow either 

 above or underground, it seems not to care which. 



J'iG. 90. — Pleshy-leaved aboTegroundbulb of common House ieelr, correppond- 

 ing to the bulbs of the commou white lily or of the hyaciuth, which are 

 iuteuded to grow underground, all being alike stems. 



and the onion seems scarcely decided what to do, 

 .growing partly in and partly out of the soil; the 

 latter another true bulb-stem, only with extended 

 coats instead of scales. There is yet another form 

 of underground stem, the rooting rhizome or root-^ 

 stock, from which we have a succession of stems, 

 as in the lily of the vaUey, the asparagus, soqie 

 sedges and ferns, in the mints, and, to the farjmer'a 



