THE FOUR STAGES OF PLANT LIFE. 



15' 



34. By the growth of the terminal bud, the axis is simply 

 lengthened in one direction, an undivided stem. But besides 

 this, buds also exist, ready formed, in the axils of the leaves, one 

 in each. These axillary buds, a part or all of them, may grow 

 and develop like the terminal bud, or they may 

 always sleep, as in the simple-stemmed Mullein or 

 Palrn. But in growing they become branches, and 

 these branches may, in turn, generate buds and 

 branchlets in the axils of their own leaves in like 

 manner. By the continued repetition of this simple 

 process, the vegetable fabric arises, ever advancing 

 in the direction of the growing points, clothing 

 itself with leaves as it advances, and en- 

 larging the volume of its axis, until it 

 reaches the limit of being assigned by its 

 Creator. 



35. Reared by this process alone, the plant consists of 

 6uch organs only as were designed for its own individual 

 nourishment roots to absorb its food, stem and 

 branches to transmit it, and leaves to digest it. 

 These are called organs of nutrition. But the 

 divine command which caused the tribes of vege- 

 tation in their diversified beauty to spring from 

 the earth, required that each plant should have its 

 "seed within itself" for the perpetuation of its 

 kind. (See. 1 ; 11.) 



36. In the third stage of 

 vegetation, therefore, a change 

 occurs in the development of 

 some of the buds. The grow- 

 ing point ceases to extend it- 

 self as hitherto, and still 

 remains a point, expand- 

 ing its scales in crowded 

 whorls, each successive 



Whorl Undergoing a radide ' r ' descendin S> and the Plumule (*) ascending. 



gradual transformation, departing more and more from the 

 original type the leaf. Thus, instead of a leafy branch, the 

 ordinary product of the bud, a flower is the result. 



37. Hence a flower may be considered as a transformed branch, 



Acorn (seed of Qtttrcu* paJiiftfris) 

 {Terminating : 1, section showing the 

 radicle (r) which is to become tha 

 root, and the two cotyledons (r) which 

 are to nourish it ; 2, the radicle r, descewding ; 3 and 4, tLe 



