THE CELLS OF THE PLANT. | 
and other substances, as may be seen by the 
accompanying figure. These cells possess some 
singular properties. They are able 
to produce other cells like them- 
selves, and these may produce 7 
others again, and so on infinitely. pranz-ceLis 
What now would follow from this (/7fied). 
fact? Suppose a single cell produced five more, 
and each of these five, and so on, yet that all 
stuck together into one mass, the result would be 
that the mass would increase in size,—in other 
words, it would grow. 
This is just what takes place in the seed when 
it grows. The little cells we see figured above, 
become the parents of a great many more of the 
same kind. ‘This takes place chiefly at that part 
of the seed where the little plumule and radicle 
are found: thus we see that, by more and more 
cells being born, the plumule grows, and the same 
with the radicle. Hence we might, for the sake 
of clearness, liken the growth of the stem of a 
plant to the building of a chimney: by adding 
brick after brick, it becomes taller and taller; and 
if, while we added bricks to the top, we also 
added a brick or two now and then to the sides, 
