466 INTERNATIONAL GARDEN CLUB 
A longitudinal slit through a dropper (see fig. 2) shows that 
it is hollow throughout. The hollow within the leaf above the 
old level (c) is continued to the lower level and the bulb en- 
closed by the leaf is at the lower extremity. This condition 
is in marked contrast to that in a plant which has not buried 
its bulb. In the latter, as is shown in the longitudinal section 
of figure 10, the roots and stem mark the level of the old bulb, 
the base of the one green leaf encloses the main bud and this 
bud and the scales immediately surrounding it arise almost 
vertically from the stem of the bulb. 
In the case of the plant shown in figure 2, there was but one 
main or stem bud; all the buds lateral to it and which were in 
the axils of the surrounding scales failed to develop. The plant 
kept its main growing bud but placed it at a lower level in the 
soil. 
A series of cross sections of a dropper and of the part of the 
leaf immediately above shows the distribution of the fibrovas- 
cular bundles and thereby reveals the composition of the 
dropper and the mechanism which produces the burrowing 
bulb. The cross sections drawn for figures 3a to 3f were taken 
from the plant shown in figure 3 at the points indicated by the 
lettering. Immediately above the level of the old stem, the 
leaf forms a hollow cylinder containing a single ring of bundles. 
(See 3a and 3b.) At the level of the juncture of the leaf with 
the old stem the cross section appears as in figure 3c; four of 
the bundles from the leaf connect directly with the stem. In 
the stem itself the bundles tend to form a ring in a solid core 
of tissue. The other bundles of the leaf continue on down 
in a direct course. Sections below this point, as at d, e and f, 
show that the arrangement of the bundles continues to be 
quite the same as at c. 
The dropper is therefore part stem and part leaf. A segment 
is stem and a segment is leaf and the two are united to form 
the hollow cylindrical column. A part of the basal circum- 
ference of the leaf is attached to the stem of the plant at the 
upper level (c) and a part of the basal circumference of the 
same leaf is attached to the stem of the bulb at the lower level. 
