The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-04-27
Hyacinth Bulbs.
LESSONS IN NATURAL SCIENCE DERIVED
FROM THE PIONEERING PLANTS OF SPRING.
From KnOwledge.J

fkOM lhL ll.ON IhlNb lIANlHbf cfhlNh.
From knowledge.
II YOU cut open hyacinth bulb, or what
il simpler to experiment upon, an onion,
you will find that il consists Of several short
abOrtive leaves or thick, ileshy scales. In
these subterranean leaves the plant stores
up the food-stulfs elaborated by it, green
portions during the summer, and there
they lie the whole winter through, ready
TO send up a lowering stem early in the
succeeding spring. The material in the
old bulb is used i'm thus producing leaves
and blossoms at the beginning OF the second
OF third season, but fresh bulbs grow out
anew from it, side. and i'm these the plant
once more stores up fresh material for the
succeeding years growth.
The hvacinths which we keep i'm glasses
on our mantelpieces represent such re-
serve OF three on four years accumulation.
They have purposely been prevented from
Towering in order TO make them produce
finer trusseS OF bloom when they are at
length permitted TO follow their own free
will. Thus the bulb contains material
enough to send up leaves and blossoms from
its own resources, and il will do 80 even II
grown entirely i'm the dark. I'm that case
the leaves will De pale yellow or family green
ish, because the true green pigment, which
is the active agent OF digestion, can only
be produced under the influence Of light; ;
whereas the flowers will retain their proper
color. because their pigment il always due
10 oxidation alone, and is but little depend
ent upon the rays OF sunshine. Even il
grown in an ordinary room, away from the
window, the leaves seldom assume their
proper deep tone Of full green; they are
mainly dependent OH the iood-stufis laid by
in the bulb, and do but little active work
on their own account. After the hyacinth
has lowered the bulb is reduced to m
empty and faced mass OF watery brown
scales.
Among all the lily kind such devices for
storing up useful material, either in bulbs
or in the very similar organs known rs
cormS, are extremely common. As con-
sequence, many Of them produce unusually
large and snowy flowers. Even among our
native English lilies we can boast OF such
beautiful blossoms as the fritillary, the wild
hyacinth, the meadow saffron, and the two
pretty squils; while in our gardens the
tiger-lilieS, tulips, tuberoses, and many
others belong to the same handsome dubious
group. Closely-allied families give us the
bulb-bearing narcissuS, daliodil, snow
drop, amaryllis, and Guernsey lily; the
crocus, gladiolus, iris, and corn-tlag; while
the neighbOring tribe Of orchids, most OF
which have tubers, probably produce more
ornamental flowers than any other family
of plants i'm the whole world.
Among widely different group we get
other herbs which lay by rich stores Of
starch or similar nutritious substances III
thickened underground branches, known
As tubers. Such, for example, are the POI
tato and the Jerusalem artichoke. Some
times the root itself il the storehOuse for
the accumulated iOOd-stuils, as in the
dahlia. the carrot, the radish, ana the tur-
nip. In all these cases the plant oh
yiously derives benefit from the habit
which it has acquired Of hiding away it,
reserve fund beneath the ground. where
1t il much less likely to be discovered
and eaten by It's animal foes, for it Is
obvious that these special reservoirs OF en-
ergetic material, which the plant intends
as food for its own flower or for It's future
offspring, are exactly those parts which
animals will be likely unfairly to appro-
PIRATE to their personal use. What feeds a
plant will feed squirrel, mouse, pig,
or "A man Just rs well. Each requires just
the same free elements, whose combination
with oxygen may yield it heat and move
ment.
Thus il happens that the parts OF plants
which we human beings mainly use as food
studs are Just the organs where starch has
been laid by for the plants own domestic
economy-seeds, as in the pea, bean, wheat,
maize, barley, rice, or millet; tubers, as IN
the potato and Jerusalem ariiehoke; corns
as in the yam or tare; and roots, as IN
arrowroot, turnip, parsnip. and carrot. In
all these, and In many other cases, the habi
first set up by nature has been sedulously
encouraged and increased by mans de
| liberate selection. What man thus con
sciousiy effectsm a few generations the sur
vlyal of the fittest has unconsciously II
fected through many long previous ages o
native Developments - Philadelphia Times