1 88 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



nut, whose cotyledons are well-stored with food- 

 stuffs for its early development. As the nut ger- 

 minates, the cotyledons open out, become flat and 

 green, like thick fleshy leaves, and begin to absorb 

 carbonic acid from the air, which they work up at 

 once with the material supplied by the tiny root 

 into protoplasm and chlorophyll. In the angle 

 between them a young shoot develops, which soon 

 puts forth delicate blades of true foliage leaves; 

 and these in turn grow and assimilate material 

 under the influence of sunlight. In the first year 

 the little beech-tree is but a tiny sapling, with a 

 short stem, already woody ; but year after year, 

 this stem grows higher, branches out and divides, 

 and slowly clothes itself in the smooth grey bark 

 characteristic of the species. The particular way 

 in which it branches is this: each autumn there is 

 formed at the base of every leaf a winter bud, 

 long and brown, and covered with close scales, 

 which enable it to survive the cold of winter. 

 When spring comes round again, each one of 

 these buds develops in turn into a leafy branch, 

 so that (accidents excepted) there are as many 

 new branches or twigs every year as there were 

 leaves on the tree in the preceding season. The 

 young leaves and branches emerge slowly and 

 cautiously from the buds in spring, for fear of 

 frost ; they are protected at first by certain scaly 

 brown coverings known as stipules. Gradually, 

 however, as the weather grows warmer, the stip- 

 ules fall off, and display the tender green leaves, 

 exposed to the air, but still folded together. As 

 soon as they can trust the season, however, the 

 leaves unfold, though they are still thickly covered 

 at the edges by protective hairs, which afterwards 

 fall off, but which guard the fresh green chloro- 



