XVI INTRODUCTION 



has, therefore, endeavoured to keep technical terms as much as 

 possible out of sight, in the hope that the lover of Nature may be 

 beguiled into forming an acquaintance with the outward appear- 

 ance of the plants of his neighbourhood, and eventually be induced 

 to study them more in detail. He has, consequently, avoided the 

 use of Latin words wherever English ones would do as well, and 

 has not dealt with the internal structure of plants, or with any 

 organs but those with which it is necessary that the student should 

 be famiHar before he refers to the body of the work for a de- 

 scription of any plant which he may have found. 



The organs of a flowering plant may be described under the 

 heads of Root, Stem, Leaf, Hairs, Inflorescence, Bracts, 

 Flower, Receptacle, Calyx, Corolla, Stamens, Carpels, 

 Fruit, and Seed. 



The Root may be the direct downward prolongation of the axis 

 of the seedling plant, when it is called a tap-root. It is then some- 

 times enlarged and fleshy, as in the conical root of the Carrot and 

 the Parsnip ; or it may be much branched, as in the Wallflower. 

 Roots given off in no definite order, such as those which spring 

 from the base of bulbs or from other stem structures, are termed 

 adventitious. They are generally fibrous, as in Grasses ; but may 

 be swollen, as in the Dropwort, when they are termed nodulose. 

 Such swollen roots, if clustered together, as in the Lesser Celan- 

 dine (p. 13), are called ^5<r/f?//«/<?. In many Orchids two fibres 

 or two groups of confluent fibres are enlarged into what are 

 termed tubercles, and the root is then called tiibcrculate. 



The slender branches of roots are called 7'ootlets ; but the 

 actual absorption of liquid food from the soil 

 is often performed by root-hairs, very delicate 

 hairs, almost microscopic in size, which occur 

 on the surface of young roots. Old roots of 

 trees become corky like stems. 



The Stem bears buds, which unfold either 



as elongating shoots, or 2^s flowers. The points 



on the stem where the leaves are given off 



^ , , are termed nodes. They are sometimes swollen, 



Tuberculate root of an • ^\. ^^ ■ • 1 r\ j i-r4.u 



Orchis. as m the Persicaria (p. 416) and most of the 



Pink family. The space between two succes- 

 sive nodes is called an i?iternode. In many herbaceous plants the 

 internodes are short, and the nodes consequently crowded and the 

 leaves in a tuft or rosette, as in the Daisy (p. 254) and the 

 Pri-mrose (p. 316). 



The stem may be unbranched ; but is more commonly branched, 

 each branch originating in a bud in the angle between a leaf and 



