ON THE CONSTITUTION AND FUNCTIONS OF BULBS. 
379 
the main bulb, send down capillary roots, which thus probably perform 
the office of the fusiform roots produced by the crocus.” 
Concerning these fusiform roots we may observe that, if the Crocus 
sativus sends down such processes constantly, it is not so with other 
species of that genus, except under peculiar circumstances; for we 
have noticed that, if any of the common garden sorts, standing long in 
the same place, get too near the surface, from the manner of increasing 
their bulbs, one every year above the former, they, near the surface, 
have the power of sending down a fusiform process, with a new bulb 
or tuber at the extremity, to take a deeper station in the soil. The 
same circumstance is exemplified in some of the wild tulips, particu¬ 
larly the T. repens. Many, if not all the British Orcliidea, the Ery- 
thronium dens-canis, &c., invariably produce their new tubers from the 
side of the old one. 
“ The Fumaria bulbosa of Linnaeus ( Corydalis bulbosa of Decan- 
dolle) has also some analogy with the crocus, and other plants, in the 
mode of reproducing its bulbs or tubers, whichever they may be called. 
In its dormant state it presents a white starchy mass, which contains 
an olive-shaped substance, situated vertically in its centre, with its 
broadest end downwards, which is of a yellowish colour, and of a 
slightly fibrous structure. When the bulb begins to grow, the roots 
proceed from the lowest part of the olive-shaped substance, and, at the 
same time, one or more shoots rise from the upper part, which continue 
to grow and produce flowers. When the old tuber has done growing, 
the offsets begin to be developed; and, as it lias been observed that 
they are always in the centre of the parent bulb, and as that is exactly 
the spot occupied by the olive-shaped substance, it may be inferred 
that the offsets have their origin in it. As the offsets increase in size, 
the substance of the parent tuber diminishes, till, by degrees, it changes 
into a spongy involucre, which, by being continually pressed by the 
new ones, is soon reduced to a membrane, and then disappears. As 
soon as the new bulbs are completely formed, the roots and the stems 
of the old tuber fall off, and the new ones remain in a dormant state 
till the next season of vegetation.” 
We feel not a little proud that the investigations of the learned Dr. 
Trinchinetti accord so nearly to what we ourselves published on the 
same subject several years ago. As proof, we may be excused for 
quoting the two following paragraphs: — 
In describing the tulip, we have stated that it may be taken as “ a 
type of the bulbous-stemmed plants, and may be described, in its peren¬ 
nial character, as being constitutionally composed of an indefinite assem¬ 
blage of vital entities, each of which is a perfect plant, consisting of 
