80 THE STEM 



204. The medullary rays are those fine lines which appear in 

 a cross section of the stem, radiating from the pith to the bark, 

 intersectmg all the intervening layers. They consist of thin, 

 firm plates of cellular tissue ; being, like the pith, the remains of 

 that tissue, which at the fii'st constituted the wliole of the stem. 



a. These rays are quite conspicuous in vertical sections of the oak, or the 

 maple, where they are sometimes called the silver grain. 



205. The bark is the external covering of the stem, consisting 

 of several integuments, of wliich the outer is the epidermis (35), 

 that next within the cellular integument, and the inner the liher. 



206. The structure of the two outer integuments is chiefly 

 cellular, and that of the inner, or fiber, is both cellular and 

 woody. The cellular integument is very tliick in Quercus 

 suber, and constitutes that useful substance cork. The liber 

 (Lat. the inner bark, hence a book, because it was manufactured 

 into parchment) is usually tliin, delicate, and strong, and has 

 been often applied to useful purposes, as in those trees of Poly- 

 nesia from which cloth, mats, and sails are made. 



207. At the end of the spring a portion of the sap, now transformed into a 

 viscid, ghitinous matter called cambium^ is deposited between the libtr and the 

 wood, becomes organized into cells, and forms a new layer upon eacli. Soon 

 afterwards, the new layers are per\^adcd by woody tubes and fibres, which com- 

 mence at the leaves and grow do-wniwards. Thus the number of layers formed 

 in the bark and wood will always be equal. 



a. Since the growth of the bark takes place by internal accretions, it follows 

 that the older layers must be earned outwards and continually expanded. Thus, 

 although smooth and entire at first, they at length become shaggy and rough, 

 with longitudinal furrows and ridges, and finally they are cast off, as in the hem- 

 lock, spruce, Avalnut, &.c. Not unfrequently, however, the older layers are ex- 

 tended in horizontal grains, or fibres, encircling the stem, as in the white birch 

 (Betula papyracea). 



h. The peculiar virtues or qualities of the plant reside in the bark ratlier than 

 in the wood ; hence this is the part chiefly used for medicine, dyes, tannin, &c. 



c. That vascular system Avhich is peculiar to the bark, serving for the circula- 

 tion of its fluids, is called the laticiferons tissue (34). It exists in the form of a 

 complete network of vessels, through wliich the sap moves in all directions. 



§ 2. FUNCTIONS OF THE STEM. 



208. We have already Stated (156) that the stem serves to 

 convey the sap from the roots to the opposite extremities of the 

 plant. 



