r.] THE STEM. 3 



You will find then that the root avoids the light ; that it 

 is pale or nearly white ; that its fibres give off irregularly 

 numerous delicate thread-like branches (fibrils) ; that it is 

 destitute of buds and leaves, and that the tips of the root 

 are protected by cellular sheaths. 



2. Now examine the Stem. 



You observe, at once, that the stem rises above the 

 ground, seeking rather than avoiding the light. It may 

 either be firm and erect, or weak and trailing. Unlike the 

 root, it is coloured more or less green, and not being 

 usually woody, we may speak of it as herbaceous. It bears 

 several foliage-leaves arranged on different sides of the 

 stem, the lower ones usually springing in a tuft from its 

 base — at least while the plant is young. The upper foliage- 

 leaves are nearly always arranged singly or in pairs on the 

 stem, although sometimes the only foliage-leaves of annual 

 plants spring in a tuft apparently from the root. 



If we examine the growing point of a young stem under a 

 magnifying glass, carefully dissecting away the leaves which 

 surround it, we shall find that to the very apex it continues 

 to give off successively minute lateral prominences, which 

 are the rudiments of leaves, either of foliage-leaves or of 

 flower-leaves, for they both originate upon the stem in the 

 same way, though they soon become different, both in their 

 arrangement, form, texture, and colour. In no case does 

 the stem terminate in a cellular sheath like that which 

 protects the tips of the root. 



At the extremity of the principal stem of your plant, 

 if fully grown, or upon certain of its branches, you find a 

 tuft of coloured leaves forming a flower. 



The branches spring from points where foliage-leaves are 

 given off from the stem ; each branch occupying the angle 

 (called the axil of the leaf) which the leaf makes with the 



B 2 



