Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1884 — The Hibernacula of Herbs. [ARTICLE]

The Hibernacula of Herbs.

In the fall of the year, as the weather grows colder, the production of the normal leaves of trees is suddenly checked. They wither and fall off. Instead of them we find a close, compact cluster of scales, and within these a number of young leaves and sometimes flower buds. The scales are designed to protect the young leaves fropa the cold during winter; they are called hibernacula or winter quartern of the tender parts. Toward spring the growth of the inclosed leaves and buds is very rapid, so as to burst open their coverings and allow a speedy development of the floral organs. Hence most trees possessing scaly buds flower early in the spring of’the year. It may not be as well known, however, that it is not at all uncommon for the earlier flowering perennial herbs to possess hibernacula, or winter buds, containing the flowers of the following year: and that many of them owe the power of early developing their flowers to this fact. Perennial herbs, on the approach of winter, die down to the surface of the ground. The stem still remaining be-

neath the earth is called the subterranean stem, and furnishes the buds from which the next year’s growth is developed. The winter buds of herbs consist of scales which owe their origin to different parts of leaves (blades, petioles), as in trees. They never attain the indurated character nor the resinous properties of scales in arboreal vegetation, but like them-are sufficiently protective to inclose the leaves and flowers of the following year and preserve them from the effects of a sudden change of weather. Unlike the hibernacula of trees, the inclosed parts begin to grow early in winter, and often break the bonds of their inclosures to develop and push their way up through the frozen soil. They are enabled to do this by the supplies of nourishment furnished by subterranean reservoirs in the shape of thickened stems or roots. The existence'ofßuch winter buds, containing the flower buds of the next season, is by no means rare.—Naturalist.