BOTANY OF LA SALLE COUNTY. 23 



the Marquette region of Michigan and Northern Indi- 

 ana, yet one 3 deg. farther north than the other. 



A Few Words of Explanation. A plant is made 

 up of root, stem, leaves, flowers and fruit. The root 

 is that part by which it holds itself in the ground or is 

 attached to other plants, for some plants live on others 

 and do not send roots into the ground. 



Roots are the thread like fibres which penetrate the 

 ground. They extend themselves by pushing out from 

 the end. 



A potato, a carrot, a beet, a turnip, an onion are not 

 roots, but forms of stems. The roots in each case are 

 the little threads which extend from the potato, carrot, 

 onion, &c, into the ground. 



The more extensive are the roots of a plant the 

 greater the area of soil from which it draws its food 

 supply. If the plant is a perennial the roots become 

 hard and woody near the stem and keep pushing out 

 farther and farther year by year. These hard, woody 

 roots are always soft and spongy at the end and this is 

 the part that advances and it is these tender ends that 

 are, as it were, the mouths of the plant. When they 

 are broken off the roots which remain cannot gather 

 food until these broken ends are repaired by new ones 

 being formed and for this reason, when we remove a 

 plant its growth is generally checked for a time, be- 

 cause it cannot collect food, unless we have taken 

 great care to save the roots from damage and put them 

 back into a good position in the ground and to press 

 the earth firmly and closely about them. 



The stem is that part of the plant that appears above 

 ground in most cases, but not always. For the potato 

 is an underground stem, the top is but the branches of 

 the stem. So with many other plants stems generally 

 branch or divide and bear leaves, flowers and fruit. 



