238 PLANT FAMILIES: MONOCOTYLEDONS. 



may suddenly blossom again in season, when springtime returns. 

 If we remove the old scales where the flowering stem joins the 

 root-stock, we see a pointed, conical, white bud, which is to 

 develop into the next season's leafy plant and blossom. From 

 June to August the new leaves and flower are slowly forming, 

 protected by several overlapping, thick, whitish, soft scales, 

 which form a conical roof to keep out water, and to protect 

 against too sudden changes in cold during the autumn and 

 winter season. In September we find that leaves and sepals are 

 well formed and green, the petals are already white, and within 

 are the six stamens and the angular pistil, all well formed. 

 Where the sun reaches these copses and warms the soil well in 

 autumn, sometimes the stamens are yellowish as early as Sep- 

 tember or . October from the already formed pollen. In the 

 cooler shades the pollen is not yet formed and the stamens re- 

 main whitish in color. But with the first onset of warm weather 

 in the spring, or on warm days in the winter, before the flower 

 bud lifts its head from its long winter sleep, snugly ensconced 

 among the fallen leaves or spongy humus, the pollen quickly 

 forms. Now all the plant has to do is to erect its standard, 

 bearing aloft the opening blossom. 



389. The ovules, begun in the autumn, are now being com- 

 pleted, pollination takes place, and later fertilization, and the 

 embryo begins to form in June. The pure white flowers soon 

 change to pinkish, the first evidence of decline. Finally they 

 wither, and during the summer the fruit and seed are formed 

 on the old flower stem, while the secret formative processes of 

 the new blossoms are going on anew. 



390. The adder-tongue (erythronium) comes out early in the 

 spring to catch the sunlight gleaming through rifts in the wood- 

 land. It is not so forbidding as its name or its "darting" 

 style would suggest. The rich color of its curved petals 

 nodding from the fork of the variegated leaves lends cheer and 

 brightness to the gray carpet of forest leaves. We are apt to 

 associate the formation of the flower with the early springtime. 



