12 POPULAR FIELD BOTANY. 
A perfect plant is composed of root, stem, branches, leaves, 
flowers, and fruit. 
The 7o0¢ is the part which fixes the plant in the ground, 
and is divided into dranches, called fibres when small, and 
tubercles when large and fleshy. ‘The end, or point, of each 
fibre has the power of drawing or sucking up the moisture 
from the ground, which is thence distributed to nourish the 
plant. 
The stem grows from the root, and bears leaves and flowers; 
when thick, woody, and forming the base of the tree, it is 
called a trunk; the first divisions of which are branches, 
and the smaller ones ¢wigs. A bulb is erroneously called a 
root, but the fibres at the lower part of it, as may be seen 
in the Hyacinth growing im a glass, are the real root, the bulb 
being the stem of the plant. 
A leaf has ribs and veins, which branch in different ways ; 
sometimes they form a kind of net-work, which is termed 
reticulated, as in the Currant leaf; and at others run side 
by side the whole length, when it is called a paralde/ leaf, 
as in the Lily and Tulip. The variety of form im leaves is 
truly wonderful, and they assume more shapes than it is 
possible to describe here. They are either in one piece, or 
divided into parts called Jeaflets, some doubly and trebly 
