but is a mere appendage to the roots ; a species of 
winter protection for the young plant, as distinct 
from the roots as is the bud of a tree. 
Bulbs have exercised the ingenuity of the most 
scientific botanists; and it is extremely gratifying 
to watch their annual reproduction : to observe the 
progress of the incipient blossoms, from their ear- 
liest formation to maturity ; and to detect a flower, 
in the recesses of a little bulb, where it is discover- 
able in embryo, several months before its appear- 
ance to the common observer. If a tulip bulb be 
cut through, in the autumn, the miniature flower 
will be found in the centre, perfect in all its parts, 
in proportion to its advanced stage of vegetation. 
Of its future colour no evidence, at that period, can 
exist, because this is a property dependent on ex- 
posure to the atmosphere ; whereby the fluids of its 
vessels, which have been stored up in the bulb, or 
newly taken in by the roots, are properly concocted 
with gases imbibed therefrom. 
Though it be as indispensable that vegetables be 
admitted to imbibe atmospheric air, as it is for ani- 
mals to breathe it, yet a flower is not always depen- 
dent on immediate contact with the atmosphere for 
its colouring principles; for we frequently find it 
conveyed to them through the medium of the foliage, 
at a period when the flowers are most ingeniously 
protected against any exposure. The crocus flower, 
at the time the leaves are issuing from the earth, 
presents a familiar example. Our young friends 
will find an examination of these bulbs and flowers, 
in different stages of their growth, particularly 
interesting. 
Hoit. Kew. 2, v. 1, 80. 
