BULB. 



plant, and produce other eir.bryo buds for its farther propa- 

 gation and increafe. Nor were lliefe great phyfiologills 

 the firll who Ihrtcd the idea. We find it clearly exprelTed 

 by Clufius, who wrote a hundred years earlier. " Ell ergo 

 tulips, lit & aharum bulbofarum tiinicatarum, bulbus nihil 

 aliud quam gemma grandis fubtcrranea, qui priter adnatas 

 txtcnias intra fe concipit alium bulbum feu gemmam, qui 

 matri bulbo fucccdens ei idem videtur, cum revera non fit, 

 fed diverfus ipfiufquc fobulcs ; cumquc intra ipfum bulbum 

 conceptus & eiiutritus fit, adnatis extremis grardior & 

 habitior evadit, ipfiulque parentis acmulus." livtn in the 

 time of Theophrallus, as wo learn from his " Hiftory of 

 Plants," lib. i. cap. lo. it had been difputed whether a bulb 

 is properly a part of the root : a queftiou which the vene- 

 rable botanjll, after Hating the arguments on both (ides, 

 finally refolves in the affirmative, on the general principle, 

 that roots are capable of appearing under different forms, 

 and that all which is under ground belongs to the root. It 

 appears, however, that, at fo early a period, there were fome 

 who compared the bulb to the xui//*, xyua, or cyma, the 

 flefliy part of the ftalk. of a cabbage, when it firft rifes above 

 the furface of the ground ; and, if we admit the propofcd 

 reading of one of the commentators, others went fo far a?! 

 to call it ara-o;, oculus, an eye, or gem ; but the coiije£\ural 

 relloration of a paiTage fo corrupt in the manufcripts as to 

 be confeffedly unintelligible, cannot be biought forward to 

 eftablilh a fad in the hillory of fcience. Since the publi- 

 cation of the Philofophia Botanica, no doubt has been en- 

 tertained on the fubjtft ; the botanifts, as well as others, 

 ftill fptak of bulbous roots : nor can any material objeftion 

 be made to the continued ufe of the term, if it be under- 

 ftood to mean a bulb-bearing root, or as it is accurately 

 exprelTcd in the Termini Botanici, " radix bulbo inftrufta." 

 Gems and bulbs are fomewhat quaintly, but not unaptly, 

 filled by Linnxus, hybernacula, the winter quarters of the 

 young, or rather embryo plant ; and they belong refpec- 

 tively to different families of the vegetable kingdom. They 

 are diftinguilhed from each other by their fituatlon, and by 

 fuch differences in their form and texture as their peculiar 

 circumftances require. In the Syftema Naturae, a ^em is 

 faid to be an hybernaculum feated on the afcending caudex ; 

 and a iuli to be an hybernaculum feated on the defcending 

 caudex : in popular language, the former is above, the 

 latter beneath the furface of the ground : i. e. the gem is a 

 ftem-bud, and the bulb a root bud. In the Termini Bota- 

 nici of Elmgren, publidied in Air.cenitates Academicx under 

 the eye of Linnaeus, the dillintlion between them is taken, 

 not from their fituation, but their fubftance. -A gem is 

 there faid to confill of the rudiments of future leaves ; and 

 a bulb to be the rudiment of thofe vvliich are pall. In this 

 definition the great naturalill, for to liim it muft ultimately 

 be attributed, even allowing the general principle to be ju(l, 

 has facrificed clearnefs, if not propriety of expreffion, to 

 his charafteriftic love of antithefis. The rudiments ot future 

 leaves require no explanation : but the f-utlinuuls of thofe 

 which have f/er't/Iiett, it is not fo eafy to underlland. He 

 undoubtedly meant the remains of what were once the rudi- 

 ments of the leaves ; and which, (heltercd by tlie furround- 

 jng earth, have not been entirely dellroyed, though confi- 

 derably changed in their appearance, by a change in the 

 temperature of the air. Or as it is ftated by Ferber in the 

 differtation entitled " Prolepfis Plantarum," publifhed alfo in 

 Amoenitates Academics," bulbus a gemma in eo folum dif- 

 fert, quod bafes fohorum perfillentes a copiofo fucco, quern 

 e terra hauriunt, fiant carnofa;, & nova folia fuis gemmis 

 inftrufta excrefcant intra priorum bafes. Non confundi 

 debent bafes foUorum prseteritorura cum foliis futurs plants ; 



illas enim baud ah'ter confiderare oportet, quam ut fquamas 

 gemmarum exteriores ab aere vel frigore in luratas." 



It is natural to inquire how the remains of leaves which 

 in their perfeft (late were above the furiace of the ground, 

 have been drawn down fo as to become the fcales or coats of 

 fubterraneous bulbs. To account for this, Linnseus mull 

 have adopted, though we do not remember that he haj 

 quoted, the theory of the old bntanitls concerning the gra- 

 dual defcent of the caudex, fuppofed to be prrductd by the 

 mechanical aftioii of the radicles or llring roots, which, to 

 borrow the homely language of Grew, " defcending them- 

 ftlves direClly into the ground, like fo many ropes, lug the 

 trunk after them." This idea is mentioned by Dr. Darwin 

 in his Phytologia with fome degree of contempt, and palled 

 over without a formal refutation as the unfounded doftrine 

 of " fome inaccurate obfervers." Without prefuming to 

 detrafl from the eftabhflied authority of Grew, wlio cer- 

 tainly ought not to be ranked with the tribe of inaccurate ob- 

 fervers, we may venture to intimate that the integuments 

 which form what may be called the body of the bulb, are 

 not in all cafes the remains of decayed leaves, but have been 

 originally formed below the furface, and have never ad- 

 vanced beyond their prefent appearance. In this point of 

 view they iiave ailually been reprefented by fome of the 

 difciples of Linraeus under his immediate mfpedlion ; as 

 appears from Loefling's differtation " De Gemmis Arborum 

 in Amoenitates Academics.." " Bulbos diximus," fays that 

 writer, " nihil aliud elTe, quam gemmas, cum eodem modo ac 

 ills includant intra fe futuram plantam ; fed eorum tunic-.fi 

 evadunt fucculcntae a copiofo nutrimento, quod hauriunt e 

 terra cui innafcuntur, quo repleti non poffunt amplius ex- 

 tendi :" i.e. bulbs, we have alterted, are no otiier tiian gems; 

 for like them they include the future plant, but their coats 

 are rendered fucculent by the copious nourifliment which 

 they draw from the earth, and in confequence of this reple- 

 tion become incapable of farther extenfion. 



Of thefe two concife definitions of a bulb, that given in 

 the Philofophia Botanica is evidently inaccurate : fincc it is 

 fo expreffed, as to include the root buds of perennial her- 

 baceous plants, called by fome authors, but not by Linnrsus, 

 turiones ; which have not the form, and have never been 

 known either in popular or fcientilic language, by the name 

 of bulbs. That in the Termini Botanici is, as we have feen, 

 deficient in perfpicuity ; and when properly explained, does 

 not appear to pofTtfs fufficient precifion. Bulbous plants! 

 are defined by Mr. Ray to be thofe which confift of a fingle 

 tuber or head, either fcaly or tunicated, throwing out nu- 

 merous fibres from its bafe. In this definition our great 

 countryman ftiould not have introdu.- d the word tuber ; for 

 in the preceding fentence he has exprefsly divided the fltfhy 

 roots which fwell laterally, into bulbous and tuberous. A 

 bulb, therefore, and a tuber, were, in his ideas, as we believe 

 them- to be in nature, diftinft things. 



A bulb is now univerfally underilood to be a fpecies of 

 bud of a pecuHar ftrufture fuited to its fituation on the 

 plant. A bulbous root confifts of this bud, of the proper 

 radicles, and of the intermediate caudex. A tuber, if we 

 miftake not, is a radicle, fwoUen, either wholly, or in part, 

 to an extraordinary thicknefs, and having generally, if not 

 always, imbedded within its fubftance the rudiments of one 

 or more future buds ; as in the well known root of the po- 

 tatoe, folanum tuberofum. See Tuber. 



Bulbs are divided by Linnasus, in his Philofophia Bota- 

 nica, into four kinds, the fquamous, the tunicated, the folid, 

 and the articulated. 



The fquamous bulb confifts of imbricated lamells ; i. e. 

 of fcalcs laid partially one over the other, Lke the tiles or 



i]ates 



