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the leaf with its petiole fell off. He was inclined to think, after 

 much observation, that the leaf and petiole were not all that were 

 cast aside, but that the injury extended to the I'oot. 



He was forced to the conclusion that the theory is correct 

 which assumed that every separate bud was connected by a distinct 

 thread with the root, and that the axis of the plant was really a 

 mere bundle of separate stalks surrounded by a common epidermis. 

 The order to which this dead nettle belonged was an instance in 

 support of this view. The leaves of all labiate plants wei'e opposite, 

 and each leaf was exactly above that beneath it on the same side. 

 This was, in fact, a quarternary arrangement, the alternate inter- 

 nodes being suppressed. Accoi'ding to the theory he had adopted, 

 the stem consisted of a concentric series of squares, the four bud 

 threads occupying the corners; and the square stem which was 

 universal in the labiatse, and which was preserved even in the 

 arrangement of the fruit, was thus fairly accounted for. That 

 closely allied order, the Scrophularinese, had not the same arrange- 

 ment of leaves or fruit, and the theory was carried out here by the 

 stem not being square. Just as in our own species Nature 

 frequently preserved life at the expense of one faculty, so we found 

 continually plants which were content to pass an imperfect 

 existence, at the expense of some one of their natural functions. 

 The garden rose or pink, given to luxurious living, pai'ts with the 

 power of propagating his species, and converted his stamens into 

 petals. The wheat or grape vine infested by pai'asitic fungi or 

 insects, lived on till the time of natural decay, but bore no fruit, and 

 this kind of compi-omise wentonthi-oughout the vegetable kingdom. 

 When the aphis infested our rose bush, or the blight our cauliflower, 

 the plant did not generally die, though for our pui-pose it might be 

 useless. The flower shed its buds before they burst into bloom, 

 parted with those organs which were now no longer necessary, as 

 the peduncle to support the flower and the bracts to shelter it, and 

 reduced its vital expenditure as much as possible, to pi'eserve its 

 mere life through the winter. The cauliflower with blight at its 

 heart, rejected not only the infected leaves, but those surrounding 

 it, all which must ultimately share the same destruction, and, 

 abandoning the acquired habits of many generations, developed 

 anew the long suppressed internodes, and mounted upwards in the 

 form of its ancestor, the common sea cabbage of our cliffs, with the 



