THE CINCINNATUS. 



VOL. II. APRIL 1, 1857. NO. 4. 



THE STEM— STRICTURES UPON VIEWS ENTERTAINED. 



Resuming our physiological analysis of the plant, we consider next 

 in order, that part called the stem ; noting, as we have done before 

 in regard to the root, briefly some of its more important charac- 

 teristics, functions, etc. 



Plants diifer from minerals in being organized bodies, possessed 

 of a degree and kind of life, capable of taking into their system ex- 

 traneous matters, and converting these, by an assimilating process, 

 into new compounds, thereby rendering them subservient to their 

 growth and development. The laws regulating plant life, differ es- 

 sentially from those characteristic either of the mineral or animal 

 kingdom. On examination of the plant we find it made up of cells, 

 fibers, tubes, and membranes, which unite to form distinct parts and 



organs. 



The stem is that part of a tree whether placed in earth or in air, 

 which, commencing between the eotyledonous lobes, proceeds from a 

 fixed point upward, in an opposite direction from the root, and 

 therefore called the ascending axis. Its appropriate elements are 

 light and air, and the gases pervading them, just as the soil and its 

 ingredients contain the proper aliment for the roots which as inva- 

 riably descend and which are therefore denominated the descending 

 axis. As the formation and functions of these parts of the plant 

 are entirely different, and seek from different sources their respective 

 elements, the laws regulating their proper increase and development 

 can not be violated with impunity. 



There are certain points generally occurring symmetrically along 

 the stem, at which leaf buds, and subsequently branches appear. 

 VOL. II., IV. — 10. (145) 



