i6o 



STEMS 



enriches the soil. In the spring, when the ground is not 

 likely to freeze again, the mulch may be raked off. Soon 



the young shoots of the 

 tulip appear. At first 

 they draw nourishment 

 from the bulbs, but 

 after they are fully de- 

 veloped, they will store 

 nourishment back in the 

 bulbs again. New bulbs 

 may develop as branches 

 from the old ones, and 

 new and old ones may 

 both be used in making 

 beds for the following 

 season. 



FIG. 55. A lily bulb. In the view at the 

 right the short stem and the overlapping 

 scales are evident. 



D. Corms. Most boys and girls who live in the coun- 

 try have tasted the Indian turnip. It has a taste which 

 no one forgets, and no one cares to taste it more than once. 

 After that, you are willing to let others taste it for you. 

 It does not poison you unless you eat too much of it, but 

 it does make you wish for quite a while that you could get 

 away from your mouth. By cooking, however, the Indian 

 turnip may be made palatable and the Indians did use it 

 for food. 



The Indian turnip is a corm. It is the base of the stem 

 of that interesting plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit (see page 279). 

 The flowers are quite common in the woods in May. The 

 corm is a fleshy, rounded, underground part of the stem 

 with scale leaves on it. It grows from year to year and 

 sometimes forms small corms as branches. These sepa- 



