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Now, such a stem as this of the corn shows you that 
the plant was born with only one seed leaf. 
Try to remember the difference between these two 
stems. 
iis, next picture. Chie: .127) ‘shows 
a part of the trunk or stem of the fir 
tree. 
The dark outside circle is the bark. 
The rings within this are the wood. 
Each year one of these woody rings is 
added: to the: tree, the last ring ot all 
lying next to the bark; so, if you count 
these, you can find out how many years the tree has lived. 
In the center we see the soft stuff called pith. 
What do these three divisions show ? 
The trunk of the palm in the next picture (Fig. 128) is 
like the stem of the corn. The wood is’ not gathered in 
rings, but is scattered through the soft part in thread-like 
bundles, so that we cannot tell just the age of the tree. 
And what else do you know about the palm? 
Why, you know that it came into 
the world with but one seed leaf. If 
it had had more than one, its stems 
would have had woody rings such as 
we see in the fir. 
In the schoolroom you cannot see 
palms and firs; but you can find a log 
in a wood pile which will show you 
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Fic. 128 
just such woody rings as prove that the fir tree had 
more than one seed leaf. 
And you can look at a stalk brought from the corn- 
